Standard Lemma guide

trochee

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈtɹəʊki/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈtɹoʊ.ki/
  • homophone: troche
  • rhymes with -əʊki

1

noun

Meaning 1

A metrical foot in verse consisting of a stressed or heavy syllable followed by an unstressed or light syllable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed syllables

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: metrical foot, foot, metrical unit

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French trochée, via Latin trochaeus from the Ancient Greek τροχαῖος (trokhaîos), derived from τρέχω (trékhō, “run”).

Across languages

Translations

24 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: troqueu — a metrical foot
  • Czech: trochej — a metrical foot
  • Danish: trokæ — a metrical foot
  • Dutch: trochee — a metrical foot
  • Dutch: trocheus — a metrical foot
  • Esperanto: troĥeo — a metrical foot
  • Esperanto: trokeo — a metrical foot
  • Faroese: rættur tvíliður — a metrical foot
  • Finnish: trokee — a metrical foot
  • French: trochée — a metrical foot
  • Galician: troqueo — a metrical foot
  • German: Trochäus — a metrical foot
  • Greek: τροχαίος (trochaíos) — a metrical foot
  • Ancient Greek: τροχαῖος (trokhaîos) — a metrical foot
  • Hungarian: trocheus — a metrical foot
  • Ido: trokeo — a metrical foot
  • Polish: trochej — a metrical foot
  • Portuguese: troqueu — a metrical foot
  • Portuguese: coreu — a metrical foot
  • Russian: трохе́й (troxéj) — a metrical foot
  • Russian: хоре́й (xoréj) — a metrical foot
  • Serbo-Croatian: tròhēj — a metrical foot
  • Spanish: troqueo — a metrical foot
  • Swedish: troké — a metrical foot