STANZA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does stanza mean? 

• STANZA (noun)
  The noun STANZA has 1 sense:

1. a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem

  Familiarity information: STANZA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STANZA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("stanza" is a kind of...):

text; textual matter (the words of something written)

Meronyms (parts of "stanza"):

line (text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stanza"):

couplet (a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse; usually rhymed)

octave (a rhythmic group of eight lines of verse)

sestet (a rhythmic group of six lines of verse)

envoi; envoy (a brief stanza concluding certain forms of poetry)

quatrain (a stanza of four lines)

Spenserian stanza (a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c)

strophe (one section of a lyric poem or choral ode in classical Greek drama)

antistrophe (the section of a choral ode answering a previous strophe in classical Greek drama; the second of two metrically corresponding sections in a poem)

rhyme royal (a stanza form having seven lines of iambic pentameter; introduced by Chaucer)

ottava rima (a stanza of eight lines of heroic verse with the rhyme scheme abababcc)

Holonyms ("stanza" is a part of...):

poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)

 Context examples 

Sometimes lines and stanzas not his own were substituted for his.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Here I heard myself apostrophised as a "hard little thing;" and it was added, "any other woman would have been melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But I can remember nothing;—not even that particular riddle which you have heard me mention; I can only recollect the first stanza; and there are several.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She finished the concluding stanza without faltering and then slowly guided the conversation into less perilous channels.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Elizabeth's eyes were fixed on her with most painful sensations, and she watched her progress through the several stanzas with an impatience which was very ill rewarded at their close; for Mary, on receiving, amongst the thanks of the table, the hint of a hope that she might be prevailed on to favour them again, after the pause of half a minute began another.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He picked up the book and read the stanza slowly aloud.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

We talked for hours over single stanzas, and I found him reading into them a wail of regret and a rebellion which, for the life of me, I could not discover myself.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He finished the stanza, attempted to read on, then came back to it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This bad impression was further heightened by Martin's reading aloud the half-dozen stanzas of verse with which he had commemorated Marian's previous visit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Phrases, lines, and stanzas were cut out, interchanged, or juggled about in the most incomprehensible manner.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)