11syllable

11syllable is a term used to describe a line of verse that contains eleven syllables. In many languages with long poetic traditions, the standard label for this length is hendecasyllable (from Greek hendeka ‘eleven’ and syllable). The form is especially prominent in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese poetry, where it has been a fundamental building block of classical verse.

Historically, hendecasyllables appear as the primary meter in Italian endecasillabo and in Spanish endecasílabo. In Italian verse, the line length is emphasized more than a fixed stress pattern, though certain accentual tendencies—such as a prominent stress near the end of the line—are common. Spanish endecasílabo frequently underpins sonnets and other period forms, shaping the cadence of Golden Age poets.

In English-language poetry, lines of eleven syllables occur but do not constitute a formal, codified meter. English poets sometimes use 11-syllable lines in translation or in experimental work, where the constraint is practical rather than metric. The lack of a universal stress pattern makes the English11-syllable line more variable than its Romance-language counterparts.

Notable examples include Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which is written in hendecasyllabic lines, and many Spanish poets of the Siglo de Oro who employed endecasílabos for formal verse. The term 11syllable thus signals a specific line length that has both historical significance in continental poetry and occasional contemporary use in English-language practice.