Iambus \I*am"bus\, n.; pl. L. {Iambi}, E. {Iambuses}. [L. iambus, Gr. ?; prob. akin to ? to throw, assail (the iambus being first used in satiric poetry), and to L. jacere to throw. Cf. {Jet} a shooting forth.] (Pros.) A foot consisting of a short syllable followed by a long one, as in [a^]m[=a]ns, or of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one, as invent; an iambic. See the Couplet under {Iambic}, n.