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.

\[ \text{Carmini} \mid \text{bus vi} \mid \text{ves ten} \mid \text{pue in om} \mid \text{ne meis}. \]

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