Definition of "alexandrine" []

• A line of English verse composed in iambic hexameter, usually with a caesura after the third foot. (noun)
• A line of French verse consisting of 12 syllables with a caesura usually falling after the sixth syllable. (noun)
• Characterized by or composed in either of these meters. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The 6-stress line is called the alexandrine (probably from the name of an Old French poem in this metre)."
• "a poem of twenty thousand lines (to the form of which this romance gave its name -- "alexandrine" verse), the work of Lambert le Tort and"
• "William Carlos Williams' poem is structured into three verses, but it is basically three alexandrine 12-syllable lines, which makes it an extremely easy form to follow."