iamb


Also found in: Thesaurus, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to iamb: jamb, Iambic pentameter, IABM

i·amb

 (ī′ămb′, ī′ăm′) also i·am·bus (ī-ăm′bəs)
n. pl. i·ambs also i·am·bus·es or i·am·bi (-bī′)
1. A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in delay.
2. A metrical foot in quantitative verse composed of a short syllable followed by a long one.

[French iambe, from Latin iambus, from Greek iambos.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

iamb

(ˈaɪæm; ˈaɪæmb) or

iambus

n, pl iambs, iambi (aɪˈæmbaɪ) or iambuses
1. (Poetry) a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, a short one followed by a long one (˘¯)
2. (Poetry) a line of verse of such feet
[C19 iamb, from C16 iambus, from Latin, from Greek iambos]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

i•amb

(ˈaɪ æm, ˈaɪ æmb)

n.
a prosodic foot of two syllables, a short followed by a long in quantitative meter, or an unstressed followed by a stressed in accentual meter, as in Come live / with me / and be / my love.
[1835–45; short for iambus]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

iamb

a foot of two syllables, the first short or unstressed, the second long or stressed. — iambic, adj.
See also: Verse
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Iamb

 of poets—Lipton, 1970.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.iamb - a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables
metrical foot, metrical unit, foot - (prosody) a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
jamb
References in periodicals archive ?
The distinctive quality of the trochaic tetrameter is its connection to song: this connection can be found in syllabo-tonic trochees and their syllabic analogues in various European languages and can presumably be explained because songs, in order to make the rhythm stand out, prefer a meter with a strong beat on the first syllable, without an anacrusis--in other words, a trochee rather than an iamb.
Recall that feet in WRA have final prominence, so the constraint IAMB (in 14) ensures that the final member of bimoraic feet is prominent.
Thirty-two foraging P scutellaris workers were monitored, of which 26 visited ripe ground fall iamb fruits and 6 visited fruit still on the branches.
But if a spondee is metrically an iamb, it is also still a spondee, rhythmically, and in terms of its effect on pace.
What makes the final turn of "Stateside" so moving isn't just the sum of its parts--the degrees of emphasis earned via repetitive phrasing (spouse // instead of lover, / stateside instead of overseas"), end rhyme (his hand is ironically "understood" even as the speaker resists its touch), and metrical organization (the phrases "I feel myself" and "a touch I want" deliver a powerful sonic punch thanks, in part, to the isolation of paired iambs on a single line).
But this is just a slip: in a later passage, Phelpstead compares the B half-line, basically, to two iambic feet, which shows he knows quite well what an iamb is.)
"Demonstrating our line opens customers up to the fact that one seasoning can do all the proteins--pork, chicken, beef, Iamb and seafood," he says.
They enjoyed a pitch-perfect Moroccan-themed dinner by Michael's On East, from stuffed .grape leaves to Iamb, There was even a great Middle Eastern band, which coaxed.
It's easy to cut off the wrong jamb, so make sure you cut the iamb that rests on the high side of the floor.
Some cats fed the same commercial diet of, say, Iamb and rice or salmon may have developed food allergies, triggering inflammatory bowel disease.
The phenomenon underlying the ITL--in the case of a difference in the intensity of sounds, preference is given to groups in which the first element is prominent, whereas in the case of a difference in the duration of sounds, preference is given to groups in which the last element is prominent --fits well with the replacement of the parametric constraints Trochee and Iamb with the corresponding non-parametric constraints, as follows: