anacrusis
/anəˈkɹuːsɪs/noun
anacrusis is spelled A-N-A-C-R-U-S-I-S: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 89 million words in written English, the 301,415th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, anacrusis means “An unstressed syllable at the start of a verse” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of anacrusis is anacruses.
How many letters and syllables are in anacrusis?
| Letters | 9: A-N-A-C-R-U-S-I-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 89 million words; the 301,415th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is anacrusis?
Anacrusis appears about once in every 89 million words in written English, the 301,415th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce anacrusis?
- UK /anəˈkɹuːsɪs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-anacrusis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of anacrusis
- anacruses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does anacrusis mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
- 2
An unstressed note or notes before the first strong beat (or downbeat) of a phrase.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Anacrusis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does anacrusis come from?
Via New Latin from Ancient Greek ἀνάκρουσις (anákrousis, “pushing up”), from ἀνακρούω (anakroúō, “I push up”), from ἀνά (aná, “up”) + κρούω (kroúō, “I strike”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).