Dactyl

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  dactyl \dac"tyl\ (d[a^]k"t[i^]l), n. [L. dactylus, Gr. da`ktylos
     a finger, a dactyl. Cf. {Digit}.]
     1. (Pros.) A poetical foot of three sylables (--- [crescent]
        [crescent]), one long followed by two short, or one
        accented followed by two unaccented; as, L.
        t["e]gm[i^]n[e^], E. mer[bprime]ciful; -- so called from


        the similarity of its arrangement to that of the joints of
        a finger. [Written also {dactyle}.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Zool.)
        (a) A finger or toe; a digit.
        (b) The claw or terminal joint of a leg of an insect or
            crustacean.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  dactyl
       n 1: a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed
            syllables
       2: a finger or toe in human beings or corresponding part in
          other vertebrates [syn: {digit}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  77 Moby Thesaurus words for "dactyl":
     Alexandrine, accent, accentuation, amphibrach, amphimacer,
     anacrusis, anapest, antispast, arsis, bacchius, beat, cadence,
     caesura, catalexis, chloriamb, chloriambus, colon, counterpoint,
     cretic, dactylic hexameter, diaeresis, dimeter, dipody, dochmiac,
     elegiac, elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, emphasis, epitrite,
     feminine caesura, foot, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet,
     hexameter, hexapody, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter, ictus, ionic,
     jingle, lilt, masculine caesura, measure, meter, metrical accent,
     metrical foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metron, molossus,
     mora, movement, numbers, paeon, pentameter, pentapody, period,
     proceleusmatic, pyrrhic, quantity, rhythm, spondee, sprung rhythm,
     stress, swing, syzygy, tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, thesis,
     tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochee