Word Study
ottava rima
CIDE DICTIONARY
A stanza of eight lines of heroic verse, with three rhymes, the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet. It was used by Byron in “Don Juan,” by Keats in “Isabella,” by Shelley in “The Witch of Atlas,” etc. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
ottava rima, n. a stanza of eight lines of 10 or 11 syllables, rhyming abababcc.
Etymology
It., lit. eighth rhyme
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