OTTAVA RIMA Definition & Meaning

ottava rima

[ oh-tah-vuh ree-muh ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

plural ottava rimas.

an Italian stanza of eight lines, each of eleven syllables (or, in the English adaptation, of ten or eleven syllables), the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet with a different rhyme: used in Keats' Isabella and Byron's Don Juan.

ottava rima

/ ˈ��ː��ə /

noun

prosody a stanza form consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines, rhyming a b a b a b c c

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of ottava rima¹

1810–20; < Italian: octave rhyme

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of ottava rima¹

Italian: eighth rhyme

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Although an occasional narrative experiment might disrupt the format, what makes “Law & Order” special is precisely the fact that it has one, like a sonnet, a sestina, or an ottava rima.

From

It is written in alexandrines, arranged in ottava rima.

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It is in ottava rima, with the translation prefixed to it of the Latin poem Furor Petroniensis.

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As an appropriate vehicle for an Italian story he took the Italian ottava rima or stanza of eight.

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Later on, Annibal Guasco produced another ottava rima version; and the tale was used by several playwrights in the composition of tragedies.

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