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Most of the poems unfold in tight, jagged quatrains.—Maggie Doherty, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024 Written as a series of poetic quatrains (stanzas of four lines each), Nostradamus organized his predictions into 10 groups of 100 quatrains (give or take).—Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 25 Dec. 2023 The five-character quatrain, which rose to prominence during the Tang dynasty, has four lines consisting of five characters each.—Olivia Wang, New York Times, 14 July 2023 This second quatrain shows the progress made by a model that has nearly finished its training.—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2020 The poem’s tercets evoke an uneasy balance, until the fourth stanza, where a quatrain appears, suspending time for just a little bit longer, like those who leaped from the burning floors.—New York Times, 8 Sep. 2022 This week: Write a quatrain or — heck — two of Balliol rhyme about some person.—Washington Post, 20 Feb. 2020 The three quatrains develop an idea or theme, and the final couplet puts forth a conclusion, a summary, an application, a narrowing of focus or even a surprise reversal.—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2019 There’s a quatrain of film adaptation news this week.—Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, 24 May 2019
Word History
Etymology
Middle French, from quatre four, from Latin quattuor
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