common meter

English

Alternative forms

• common metre

Noun

common meter (uncountable)

1. (hymnody) A hymn metre characterized by a quatrain of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.

   The hymn “Amazing Grace” is in common meter.

   • 2008 January 13, Ben Ratliff, “Easy Slogans, Twinkly Funk and One Busy String”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     The English band Crass sounded like a bag of rocks: scrabbly drum rolls, clanky guitars, no bass end, the words a jabbery Cockney caterwaul through endless stanzas of common meter.

Synonyms

• common measure

See also

• long meter
• short meter