ottava rima

UK: /ˈriːmə/ US: (ō tä′və rē′mə)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

ot•ta•va ri•ma  (ō tä′və rē′mə), pl. ot•ta•va ri•mas. 

1. Poetry an Italian stanza of eight lines, each of eleven syllables (or, in the English adaptation, of ten or eleven syllables), the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet with a different rhyme: used in Keats' Isabella and Byron's Don Juan.

• Italian: octave rhyme
• 1810–20

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

ottava rima / ˈriːmə/ noun

1. a stanza form consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines, rhyming a b a b a b c c

Etymology: Italian: eighth rhyme