alexandrine
/ˌælɪkˈsændriːn/
alexandrine noun: a line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.
Noun (1)
alexandrine (plural alexandrines)
- A line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.
- The dominant metre in Les Fleurs du Mal is the twelve-syllable alexandrine, the defining metre of French versification, with the eight-syllable line a distant runner-up and the ten-syllable line barely visible.2005, Rachel Killick, “Baudelaire's versification: conservative or radical?”, in Rosemary Lloyd, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 52
- Synonyms:
- Alexandrian
Adjective (1) capitalized: Alexandrine
Alexandrine (comparative more Alexandrine, superlative most Alexandrine)
- Of or relating to Alexandria.
- The division of Scholz himself, in the work last named, is into the Alexandrine and Constantinopolitan recension. […] But in amalgamating the Alexandrine and Western Mss. together, he has done not a little violence to both. Moreover, taking the fact as true, which Eusebius has related in respect to...1836, [Johann Leonhard] Hug, translated by David Fosdick Jr., edited by M[oses] Stuart, Hug’s Introduction to the New Testament, Andover: […] Gould and Newman, page 686
- Dioscorus sent a man there called Eutyches, a monk—monks had been too useful to Alexandrine politics to be abandoned.1968, The Eastern Churches Quarterly, volume 4, page 232
- Synonyms:
- Alexandrian
Noun (2) capitalized: Alexandrine
Alexandrine (plural Alexandrines)
- A native or inhabitant of Alexandria.
- The Alexandrines considered themselves Greeks and Macedonians. And, as a matter of fact, it does not seem likely that there was any considerable infusion of native Egyptian blood in the Alexandrines.1927, Edwyn Bevan, A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. […], page 98
- The Alexandrines, proud of their sophistication, claimed that the Cairenes were provincial, the Cairo girls somewhat dowdy; their petticoats showed below their dresses, and they boasted that the really beautiful Cairo girls all married in Alexandria. To prove their point, Alexandrines invariably...a. 1980, Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff, edited by Deborah A. Starr and Sasson Somekh, Mongrels or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff, Stanford University Press, published...
- Synonyms:
- Alexandrian
Adjective (2) capitalized: Alexandrine
Alexandrine (comparative more Alexandrine, superlative most Alexandrine)
- Of or relating to Alexander the Great.
- When we picture to ourselves his [Napoleon’s] dawning military genius at Toulon—his daring and decided politics in the storms of the Revolution—his Cæsarian ambition in assuming the purple—his rivalry of Hannibal in urging an army, with heavy artillery, over the frozen and apparently impassable...1829 March, “Napoleon a Sainte Helene. Opinion d’un Medecin sur la Maladie de l’Empereur Napoleon, et sur la Cause de sa Mort; offerte a son Fils, au Jour de sa Majorite. Par S. Hereau, […]”, in...
- Have you not read somewhere of a Philip of Macedon and an Alexander of Macedonia, whom the Greeks looked down upon because he had not been born farther south, and yet who built up the best army of ancient times? Macedonia, the beginning of the great Alexandrine Empire, and birthplace of the Emperor...1914, Albert Bushnell Hart, “The Balkan War”, in Addresses Delivered Before the Canadian Club of Ottawa, page 97
- Synonyms:
- Alexandrian
Noun (3) capitalized: Alexandrine
Alexandrine (plural Alexandrines)
- Ellipsis of Alexandrine parakeet.
- He is hardly distinguishable from an ordinary cock Alexandrine except for his slightly smaller size and rather less massive head and beak—the latter a distinct improvement.1950, Edward Boosey, “Breeding Results at the Keston Foreign Bird Farm”, in The Avicultural Magazine, volumes 56–57, page 19
- My own experiences of a liberty Alexandrine were of a very different nature. One Christmas Eve, above the pre-dusk cacophony which will be heard in any collection of parrots, I detected an unfamiliar voice. I soon sighted an Alexandrine flying towards the neighbouring garden.1980, Rosemary Low, Parrots: Their Care and Breeding, Blandford Press, →ISBN, page 222
Noun (4) capitalized: Alexandrine
Alexandrine (plural Alexandrines)
- Alternative letter-case form of alexandrine.
- Some of these Alexandrines are well marked, in others the last word has such a strong accent on the last syllable but two that both final syllables fall on the ear rather as an addition to the last measure, a mere superfluous syllable, than a distinct measure by themselves.1871, Alexander J[ohn] Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, with Especial Reference to Shakspere and Chaucer, […], part III ([…]), London: […] [F]or the Philological Society by Asher & Co., London...
- In all these matters each man did as he liked—some used prose, some blank, some frequent short lines, some none at all: some weak-endings, some trisyllabic feet, some female endings, some Alexandrines; but none of these things were patent to the public.1881, C[lement] M[ansfield] Ingleby, Occasional Papers on Shakespeare: Being the Second Part of Shakespeare the Man and the Book, London: […] Josiah Allen, […] Trübner & Co., […], page 64
Proper noun capitalized: Alexandrine
Alexandrine
- A female given name from French.
- Whoever will drink of an unadulterated stream must go to the fountain-head. This, Miss Laura Alexandrine Smith has done, and that she has drunk deeply, is easy to be seen from the spirit and enthusiasm with which she writes.1887 June, R. M. Ballantyne, “Introductory Note”, in Laura Alexandrine Smith, The Music of the Waters. […], London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., […], published 1888, page ix
- Alexandrine Ave., named for Alexandrine M. Willis, the wife of B. Campau, land owner (1863)2008, Kristin Palm, The Straits, Palm Press, →ISBN, page 21
Synonyms of alexandrine
Forms of alexandrine
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | alexandrines |
| alternative form | Alexandrine |
| plural | Alexandrines |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more Alexandrine |
| superlative | most Alexandrine |
Origin of alexandrine
From Middle French alexandrin. So called from its use in old French poems on Alexander the Great (Roman d'Alexandre, c. 1177).
Partly from Middle French alexandrin and partly from Latin Alexandrīnus.
From Alexander + -ine.
Words formed from alexandrine
Phrases with alexandrine
Questions about alexandrine
- What does alexandrine mean?
- Alexandrine means a line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.
- What part of speech is alexandrine?
- Alexandrine can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce alexandrine?
- Alexandrine is pronounced /ˌælɪkˈsændriːn/.
- What is the plural of alexandrine?
- The plural of alexandrine is alexandrines.
Words near alexandrine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: alexandrine (page history and authors); Alexandrine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-alexandrine.wav.
Cite this entry: “alexandrine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alexandrine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.