stanza

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: stan=za

CIDE DICTIONARY

stanza, n. [It. stanza a room, habitation, a stanza, i. e., a stop, fr. L. stans, p. pr. of stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Estancia, Stance, Stanchion.].

•  A number of lines or verses forming a division of a song or poem, and agreeing in meter, rhyme, number of lines, etc., with other divisions; a part of a poem, ordinarily containing every variation of measure in that poem; a combination or arrangement of lines usually recurring, whether like or unlike, in measure.  [1913 Webster]

  "Horace confines himself strictly to one sort of verse, or stanza, in every ode."  [1913 Webster]
•  An apartment or division in a building; a room or chamber.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

stanza, n.
1 the basic metrical unit in a poem or verse consisting of a recurring group of lines (often four lines and usu. not more than twelve) which may or may not rhyme.
2 a group of four lines in some Greek and Latin metres.

Derivative

stanza'd adj. (also stanzaed) (also in comb.). stanzaic adj.

Etymology

It., = standing-place, chamber, stanza, ult. f. L stare stand

THESAURUS

stanza

Spenserian stanza, anacrusis, antistrophe, bass passage, book, bourdon, bridge, burden, cadence, canto, chorus, coda, couplet, development, distich, division, envoi, epode, exposition, figure, folderol, harmonic close, heptastich, hexastich, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, line, measure, monostich, movement, musical phrase, musical sentence, octastich, octave, octet, ornament, ottava rima, part, passage, pentastich, period, phrase, quatrain, refrain, resolution, response, rhyme royal, ritornello, section, septet, sestet, sextet, statement, stave, strain, strophe, syllable, tailpiece, tercet, terza rima, tetrastich, triplet, tristich, tutti, tutti passage, variation, verse

ROGET THESAURUS

stanza

Poetry

N poetry, poetics, poesy, Muse, Calliope, tuneful Nine, Parnassus, Helicon, Pierides, Pierian spring, versification, rhyming, making verses, prosody, orthometry, poem, epic, epic poem, epopee, epopoea, ode, epode, idyl, lyric, eclogue, pastoral, bucolic, dithyramb, anacreontic, sonnet, roundelay, rondeau, rondo, madrigal, canzonet, cento, monody, elegy, amoebaeum, ghazal, palinode, dramatic poetry, lyric poetry, opera, posy, anthology, disjecta membra poetae song, ballad, lay, love song, drinking song, war song, sea song, lullaby, music, nursery rhymes, doggerel, Hudibrastic verse, prose run mad, macaronics, macaronic verse, leonine verse, runes, canto, stanza, distich, verse, line, couplet, triplet, quatrain, strophe, antistrophe, verse, rhyme, assonance, crambo, meter, measure, foot, numbers, strain, rhythm, accentuation, dactyl, spondee, trochee, anapest, hexameter, pentameter, Alexandrine, anacrusis, antispast, blank verse, ictus, elegiacs, elegiac verse, elegaic meter, elegaic poetry, poet, poet laureate, laureate, bard, lyrist, scald, skald, troubadour, trouvere, minstrel, minnesinger, meistersinger, improvisatore, versifier, sonneteer, rhymer, rhymist, rhymester, ballad monger, runer, poetaster, genus irritabile vatum, poetic, poetical, lyric, lyrical, tuneful, epic, dithyrambic, metrical, a catalectin, elegiac, iambic, trochaic, anapestic, amoebaeic, Melibean, skaldic, Ionic, Sapphic, Alcaic, Pindaric, a poem round and perfect as a star, Dichtung und Wahrheit, furor poeticus, his virtues formed the magic of his song, I do but sing because I must, I learnt life from the poets, licentia vatum, mutum est pictura poema, O for a muse of fire!, sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge, the true poem is the poet's mind, Volk der Dichter und Denker, wisdom married to immortal verse.