Trochee

In poetic metre, a trochee (/ˈtroʊkiː/) is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, in qualitative meter, as found in English, and in modern linguistics; or in quantitative meter, as found in Latin and Ancient Greek, a heavy syllable followed by a light one (also described as a long syllable followed by a short one).^[1] In this respect, a trochee is the reverse of an iamb. Thus the Latin word íbī "there", because of its short-long rhythm, in Latin metrical studies is considered to be an iamb, but since it is stressed on the first syllable, in modern linguistics it is considered to be a trochee.

The adjective form is trochaic. The English word trochee is itself trochaic since it is composed of the stressed syllable /ˈtroʊ/ followed by the unstressed syllable /kiː/.

Another name formerly used for a trochee was a choree (/ˈkɔːriː/), or choreus.