in ancient poetry, a kind of verse, consisting of five feet, or metres, whence the name. The two first feet may be either dactyls or spondees at pleasure; the third is always a spondee; and the two last anapests: such is the following verse of Ovid.

Carminibus vires templum in omne meis.

A pentameter verse subjoined to an hexameter, constitutes what is called elegiac. See Elegiac.