Three metrical feet in a line of verse are called?

• A. Dimeter
• B. Tetrameter
• C. Trimeter
• D. Monometer

Answer: (C)

Meter in poetry is counted by feet, and the number of feet in a line determines its meter. If a line has three metrical feet, that line is in trimeter. The term comes from tri- meaning three and -meter meaning measure, signaling three repeating rhythmic units in the line. Different line lengths use different numbers of feet: one foot is monometer, two is dimeter, four is tetrameter, five is pentameter, and so on. In practice, you might see iambic trimeter, where each foot is an iamb—unstressed followed by stressed syllable—repeating three times to give a da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM rhythm. That’s why the three-foot form is called trimeter.