What kind of foot is the word “fantastic”?

• A. Anapestic
• B. Iambic
• C. Dactylic
• D. Trochaic

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is how meter uses patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to name a foot. A dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. When you say fantastic as FAN-tas-tic, the first syllable carries the strong beat and the next two are lighter, giving a long-short-short pattern. That matches a dactyl, which is why this word fits as a dactylic foot. Note that some speakers place the stress on the second syllable (fan-TAS-tic), which would feel different, but the common, traditional way to scan this word in meter treats the first syllable as the stressed beat, aligning it with a dactyl.