verse

UK/vɜːs//ˈvɝs/

verse noun: a poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme.

Noun

verse (countable and uncountable, plural verses)

A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme.
- Restoration literature is well known for its carefully constructed verse.
Synonyms:

poetry
Poetic form in general.
- The restrictions of verse have steadily been relaxed over time.
One of several similar units of a song, consisting of several lines, generally rhymed.
- Note the shift in tone between the first verse and the second.
Synonyms:

stanza
A small section of a holy book (Bible, Quran etc.)
A portion of an anthem to be performed by a single voice to each part.

Verb (1)

verse (third-person singular simple present verses, present participle versing, simple past and past participle versed)

(obsolete) To compose verses.
- It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet.a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber...
(transitive) To tell in verse, or poetry.
- playing on pipes of corn and versing lovec. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
(figuratively, transitive) to educate about, to teach about.
- He versed us in the finer points of category theory.
- Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.[…]Next day she[…]tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361

Verb (2)

verse (third-person singular simple present verses, present participle versing, simple past and past participle versed)

(colloquial, proscribed, sometimes) To oppose, to compete against.
- When teams play now they "verse" each other. "Who did you verse?" (Forget "whom". It's long dead.) "We're versing you next." Pity the Latin scholar who might feel the loss of "versus" more keenly than many.2007 March 26, Nick Green, “Being illiterate and innumerate shouldn’t shame anyone”, in Sydney Morning Herald
- If you've got Onslaught let me know and I'll verse you.2009 August 11, CrazyGunner [username], “Verse me on Onslaught”, in Nintendo Life

verse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

verse in Hindi

poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme: छंद chand
poetic form in general: कविता kavitā
one of several similar units of a song, consisting of several lines, generally rhymed: छंद chand, गाथा gāthā

verse in Tamil

poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme: பா pā
poetic form in general: பா pā
one of several similar units of a song, consisting of several lines, generally rhymed: பா pā

verse in Urdu

verse: آیت āyat
verse, line: پد pad

More languagesFewer languages

verse in Bengali: পদ্য poddo
verse in Telugu: పద్యము padyamu
verse in Malayalam: വാക്യം, കവിത
verse in Kannada: ಶ್ಲೋಕ ślōka
verse in Punjabi: ਆਇਤ
verse in Gujarati: કલમ kalam
verse in Sanskrit: गाथा gāthā
verse in Nepali: पद्य
verse in Pashto: آيات āyāt
verse in Arabic: نَظْم naẓm, بَيْت bayt, آيَة ʔāya, عَدَد ʕadad
verse in Persian: مصرع mesra', نظم nazm, بند band, آیه âye

Examples of verse in a sentence

Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page...
There was an ODI last year where the Blackcaps versed Ireland, and we almost lost, but we didn't.2023, “There had to be blood” (4:13 from the start), in Taskmaster NZ, season 4, episode 6, spoken by Mel Bracewell:

All 40 example sentences with verse

Synonyms of verse

Forms of verse

Noun
plural	verses
Verb
third-person singular present	verses
present participle	versing
past participle	versed
past	versed

Past tense of verse: versed

Plural of verse: verses

Origin of verse

From Middle English vers, from a mixture of Old English fers and Old French vers; both from Latin versus (“a line in writing, and in poetry a verse; (originally) row, furrow”), from vertō (“to turn around”).

Back-formation from versus, misconstrued as a third-person singular verb verses.

Words formed from verse

Phrases with verse

vice verse

Words that rhyme with verse

36 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about verse

What does verse mean?: Verse means a poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme.
What is verse in Hindi?: Verse in Hindi is छंद (chand), कविता (kavitā), गाथा (gāthā). See Verse meaning in Hindi.
How do you use verse in a sentence?: Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.
What part of speech is verse?: Verse can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce verse?: Verse is pronounced /vɜːs/ (UK).
What is the plural of verse?: The plural of verse is verses.

Words near verse in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: verse (page history and authors); verse (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); آیت (Urdu) (page history and authors); verse (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಶ್ಲೋಕ (Kannada) (page history and authors); verse (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); verse (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); آيات (Pashto) (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: en-us-verse.ogg.

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