Word.ws English Dictionary

anacrusis

/anəˈkɹuːsɪs/

anacrusis noun: an unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.

Noun

anacrusis (plural anacruses)

  1. An unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
  2. An unstressed note or notes before the first strong beat (or downbeat) of a phrase.
    • Then Etheridge poised his baton, jerked an upbeat, and made the violinists speak the low G and A of their anacrusis.1989, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron

Forms of anacrusis

pluralanacruses

Origin of anacrusis

Via New Latin from Ancient Greek ἀνάκρουσις (anákrousis, “pushing up”), from ἀνακρούω (anakroúō, “I push up”), from ἀνά (aná, “up”) + κρούω (kroúō, “I strike”).

Words formed from anacrusis

Questions about anacrusis

What does anacrusis mean?
Anacrusis means an unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
What part of speech is anacrusis?
Anacrusis is a noun.
How do you pronounce anacrusis?
Anacrusis is pronounced /anəˈkɹuːsɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of anacrusis?
The plural of anacrusis is anacruses.

Words near anacrusis in the dictionary

  1. anacrophores
  2. anacrotic
  3. anacrotism
  4. anacruses
  5. anacrusic
  6. anacrusis
  7. anacrustic
  8. anacrustically
  9. anacusia
  10. anacusic
  11. anacusis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anacrusis (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)-Vealhurl-anacrusis.wav.

Cite this entry: “anacrusis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anacrusis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.