Word.ws English Dictionary

hemistich

/ˈhɛmɪstiːʃ/

hemistich noun: an approximate half-line of verse, separated from another by a caesura, often for dramatic effect.

Noun

hemistich (plural hemistichs or hemistiches)

  1. An approximate half-line of verse, separated from another by a caesura, often for dramatic effect.
    • […] I would first agree with [Earl] Wasserman that the last line ["[shapes] Which walk upon the sea, and chaunt melodiously"] alludes to Jesus walking on water, the point of the allusion being the kerygmatic expression of a form of transcendence, which is more or less specified by the way the other...2011, Edward T. Duffy, “Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound”, in The Constitution of Shelley’s Poetry: The Argument of Language in Prometheus Unbound (Anthem...
  2. An unfinished line of verse.

hemistich meaning in Tamil and Arabic

hemistich in Tamil

நிரம்பாச் செய்யுள்

hemistich in Arabic

approximate half-line of verse
مِصْرَاع miṣrāʕ

Forms of hemistich

pluralhemistichs
pluralhemistiches

Origin of hemistich

From French hémistiche, from Latin hēmistichium, from Ancient Greek ἡμιστίχιον (hēmistíkhion), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “half”) + στίχος (stíkhos, “verse”).

Words formed from hemistich

Questions about hemistich

What does hemistich mean?
Hemistich means an approximate half-line of verse, separated from another by a caesura, often for dramatic effect.
What is hemistich in Tamil?
Hemistich in Tamil is நிரம்பாச் செய்யுள். See Hemistich meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hemistich?
Hemistich is a noun.
How do you pronounce hemistich?
Hemistich is pronounced /ˈhɛmɪstiːʃ/.
What is the plural of hemistich?
The plural of hemistich is hemistichs.

Words near hemistich in the dictionary

  1. hemispindles
  2. hemispingus
  3. hemist
  4. hemisternotomies
  5. hemisternotomy
  6. hemistich
  7. hemistichal
  8. hemistiches
  9. hemistichs
  10. hemists
  11. hemisuccinate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hemistich (page history and authors); hemistich (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “hemistich.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hemistich. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.