feminine ending

n.

1. An extra unstressed syllable at the end of a line of verse.
2. Grammar. A final syllable or termination that marks or forms words in the feminine gender.

The melodic termination of a phrase or motif on a weak beat, or on an unstressed part of a bar.

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feminine ending, the ending of a metrical verse line on an unstressed syllable, as in the regular trochaic line. In English iambic pentameters, a feminine ending involves the addition of an eleventh syllable, as in Shakespeare's famous line

To be, or not to be; that is the question

In French, a feminine line is one ending with a mute e, es, or ent. A feminine caesura is a pause following an unstressed syllable, usually in the middle of a line. See also metre, stress.

An extra unaccented syllable at the end of an iambic or anapestic line of poetry, often used in blank verse.

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