Related Words

Abc: A reference to the caribbean islands of aruba, bonaire, and curacao, in the netherlands antilles, just off the northern coast of south america (venezuela). Fabulous for diving, snorkelling a . . . View Full Definition

ABC Agreement: A contract between an employee and a brokerage firm outlining the rights of the firm purchasing an NYSE membership for that employee.

ABCD Paper: Mortage loans are rated as A, B, C, or D paper. A paper loans are the highest quality, lowest risk loans, B quality are loans where the borrower has minor credit problems, C quality are borr . . . View Full Definition

Curtal Sonnet: A short sonnet devised by gerard manley hopkins that maintains the proportions of the italian form (6:4.5 to 8:6), substituting two six-stress tercets for two quatrains in the octave (rhymin . . . View Full Definition

Ballad Stanza: Quatrain rhyming abcb and alternating four-stress and three-stress lines.

Octave: In audio, the interval between any two frequencies having a ratio of 2 to 1. One octave up from 100 Hz is 200 Hz, where one octave down from 100 Hz is 50 Hz. A harmonic is a doubling (2nd ha . . . View Full Definition

Quatrain: A four-line stanza, rhyming, abac or abcb (unbounded, or ballad), as in 'sir patrick spence' and samuel taylor coleridge's 'the ryme of the ancient mariner', aabb (a double couplet), abab (i . . . View Full Definition

Acrostic: A word, phrase, or passage spelled out vertically by the first letters of a group of lines in sequence. Sir john davies' hymnes of astraea dedicates 26 acrostic poems to elizabeth i. Edgar a . . . View Full Definition

Ottava Rima: An italian stanza of eight 11-syllable lines, with the rhyme scheme abababcc, introduced by sir thomas wyatt and by w. B. Yeats in 'among school children' and 'sailing to byzantium,' and ada . . . View Full Definition

Ballad Measure: Traditionally, ballad measure consists of a four-line stanza or a quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines with an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme. Works written in balla . . . View Full Definition