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 anapentes: such is the following verse of Ovid:

\[ \text{Curmini} \text{bus} \text{vit} \text{nes} \text{tem} \text{pus} \text{in} \text{om} \text{ne} \text{meis}. \]

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