Word.ws English Dictionary

dactyl

Syllables: dact·yl/ˈdæktɪl/

dactyl noun: a metrical foot of three syllables of the shape | – ⏖ |.

dactyl: a metrical foot of three syllables of the shape | – ⏖ |
Image: Pompilos based on Tomwsulcer 's work, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

dactyl (plural dactyls)

  1. A metrical foot of three syllables of the shape | – ⏖ |
    • Now the Bard, glad to get an audience, […] / stuck fast with his first hexameter, / Not one of all whose gouty feet would stir. // But ere the spavin'd dactyls could be spurr'd / Into recitative, in great dismay / Both cherubim and seraphim were heard / To murmur loudly through their long array; […]1822 October 15, Quevedo Redivivus [pseudonym; Lord Byron], “The Vision of Judgment”, in The Liberal. Verse and Prose from the South, 2nd edition, volume I, number I, London: […] John Hunt, […]...
    • —My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has a Hellenic ring, hasn't it?1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 4
  2. In qualitative metre, a foot with a stressed first syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
  3. In quantitative metre, a foot with a long first syllable followed by two short syllables.
  4. (transferred sense) An excerpt of poetry or verse using this metre.

dactyl meaning in Tamil and Sanskrit

dactyl in Tamil

விரல், கால் விரல்

dactyl in Sanskrit

dactyl
चरण cáraṇa

Forms of dactyl

pluraldactyls
alternative formdactyle
alternative formdactile

Origin of dactyl

Learned borrowing from Latin dactylus, from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”), from the three bones of the finger corresponding to three syllables. Doublet of dactylus, date, and (possibly) digit.

Words formed from dactyl

Questions about dactyl

What does dactyl mean?
Dactyl means a metrical foot of three syllables of the shape | – ⏖ |.
What is dactyl in Tamil?
Dactyl in Tamil is விரல், கால் விரல். See Dactyl meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is dactyl?
Dactyl is a noun.
How do you pronounce dactyl?
Dactyl is pronounced /ˈdæktɪl/ (UK).
What is the plural of dactyl?
The plural of dactyl is dactyls.

Words near dactyl in the dictionary

  1. DACs
  2. dactile
  3. dactiles
  4. dactinomicine
  5. dactinomycin
  6. dactyl
  7. dactyl-
  8. dactylaplasia
  9. dactylaplasias
  10. dactylar
  11. dactyle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dactyl (page history and authors); dactyl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); चरण (Sanskrit) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dactyl.wav.

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