decasillabo

ten-syllable; decasyllabic

adjective noun deh-kah-SEEL-lah-boh Rare

Origin: From Greek deka (ten) + syllabē (syllable).

Usage Note

Decasillabo describes a verse line of exactly ten syllables, a fundamental metre in Italian poetry — Dante's endecasillabo (eleven-syllable line) is more common, but the decasillabo appears notably in Leopardi and operatic librettos. As a noun (il decasillabo) it names the line itself; as an adjective it modifies verso (verso decasillabo). Stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable.

Examples

"Il librettista preferiva il verso decasillabo."

Natural Translation

The librettist preferred the decasyllabic verse.

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