trochaic

UK/tɹoʊˈkeɪ.ɪk//tɹəˈkeɪ.ɪk/

trochaic adjective: composed of or relating to trochees, feet of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

Adjective

trochaic (not comparable)

Composed of or relating to trochees, feet of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.
- Therefore, in precisely these languages a mechanism could be maintained which preserves the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables in the trochaic word structure pattern (see 42.3.1) by weakening the onset of a longer or weightier unstressed syllable.2022, Marianne Bakró-Nagy, “Consonant gradation”, in Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso, Elena Skribnik, editors, The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages, Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page...

Noun

trochaic (plural trochaics)

A poetical composition of this kind.

Forms of trochaic

Adjective
alternative abbreviation	troch.
alternative form (obsolete)	trochaick
Noun
plural	trochaics

Origin of trochaic

Either via the French trochaïque or directly from its etymon, the Latin trochaicus, from the Ancient Greek τροχαικός (trokhaikós), from τροχαῖος (trokhaîos), whence trochee.

Words formed from trochaic

Questions about trochaic

What does trochaic mean?: Trochaic means composed of or relating to trochees, feet of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.
What part of speech is trochaic?: Trochaic can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce trochaic?: Trochaic is pronounced /tɹoʊˈkeɪ.ɪk/ (UK).

Words near trochaic in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: trochaic (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: 2026-09-02

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

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