dactyl

1 of 2

noun

dac·​tyl ˈdak-tᵊl 

-ˌtil

: a metrical foot consisting of one long and two short syllables or of one stressed and two unstressed syllables (as in tenderly)

dactylic

dak-ˈti-lik 

adjective or noun

dactyl-

2 of 2

combining form

variants or dactylo-

: finger : toe : digit

dactylology

Examples of dactyl in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The structures in their dactyl clubs could influence the designs of military and athletic protective gear in the future. —Tim Stevens, Ars Technica, 22 Feb. 2025

Their punching fist, called a dactyl club, has a protective structure with multiple layers that the team says might one day inspire impact-resistant gear for humans. —Sara Hashemi, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Feb. 2025

Mantis shrimp are armed with a one hammer-like dactyl club on each side of its body, which act like a pair of fists and can punch with the force of a .22 caliber bullet. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 7 Feb. 2025

Crablike dactyl designs enable robots to achieve this anchoring behavior while still being lightweight enough to walk on dry sand. —Evan Ackerman, IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2023

Poems of the Week is this double dactyl by one of the legends of The Style Invitational, Brendan Beary, of the 1,084 blots of Invite ink and 39 outright wins, commemorating what might have been the most famous animal in the United States for a few days. —Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2020

This week: Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2021, as in the double dactyl above by Lover of Baseball, Double Dactyls and Bad Language Gene Weingarten. —Washington Post, 30 Dec. 2021

This was the tack taken by Gene Weingarten in today’s example, a double dactyl about the famously profane Tommy Lasorda. —Washington Post, 30 Dec. 2021

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English dactyl, dactile "fruit of the date palm, a dactyl in verse," borrowed from Latin dactylus "dactyl in verse, kind of date," borrowed from Greek dáktylos "digit (finger or toe), finger's width as a measurement, dactyl in verse, date," of uncertain origin

Note: The metrical foot is so called because the first of the three syllables is the longest, as in the joints of a finger. — The sense "date" of the Greek word may depend on a Semitic source (compare Aramaic diqlā "date palm," from which Maghribi Arabic daqal "kind of date," post-biblical Hebrew deqel "palm tree" may have been borrowed), accommodated to dáktylos "digit" by folk etymology. — P. Chantraine (Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque) alludes to a proposed connection between dáktylos and the Germanic verb represented by Old Norse taka "to seize, grasp," Gothic tekan "to touch," though the etymology of this verb and its possible Indo-European congeners is problematic (see take entry 1). The Boeotian variant dakkýlios of daktýlios "finger ring" implies an original form *datkylos, which, with the *-tk- cluster and *-yl- suffix, would make it of pre-Greek substratal origin according to R. Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009). Compare digit, toe entry 1.

Combining form

Greek daktyl-, daktylo-, from daktylos

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for dactyl

• fractal
• tactile
• retractile

Kids Definition

dactyl

noun

dac·​tyl ˈdak-tᵊl 

: a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables (as in tenderly)

dactylic

dak-ˈtil-ik 

adjective

Medical Definition

dactyl

noun

dac·​tyl ˈdak-tᵊl 

: a finger or toe