nounplural noun anacruses/ˌanəˈkruːsiːz/

• 1Prosody
  One or more unstressed syllables at the beginning of a verse.

  ‘Coleridge seems not to have noticed that the tenth line is actually a heptameter - unless one were to allow a double anacrusis.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘A full anapestic metre with feminine ending gives somewhat the effect of anacrusis, since a third light syllable must be crowded in between the stresses.’
  • ‘The Old English poem contains only about eighty instances of anacrusis, for example.’
• 2Music
  One or more unstressed notes before the first bar line of a piece or passage.

  ‘The first subphrase is a modified inversion of the first measure of the Mother's theme, motives a and b and the first note of motive c, excluding the anacrusis but including the grace note.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Edward's final, truthful, answer, ‘O, I have killed my father dear,’ explodes at the end of the third stanza of the poem and in the music at the anacrusis to measure 44.’
  • ‘This restatement of the Mother's opening chord provides the vehicle for a sudden shift of tonality to B-flat major and Edward's final answer at the anacrusis to measures 44 and following.’
  • ‘Again they sound at the same speed as in bar 4 (if the two-to-one tempo-relationship is observed), but this time they act as anacrusis to a vigorous statement of ‘c’.’