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haiku definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural haiku) Etymology: Japanese Date: 1902 an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables respectively; also a poem in this form usually having a seasonal reference — compare tanka

Britannica Concise

Unrhymed Japanese poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines containing five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. Haiku expresses much and suggests more in the fewest possible words. The form gained distinction in the 17th cent., when Basho elevated it to a highly refined art. It remains Japan's most popular poetic form. The Imagist poets (1912-30) and others have imitated the form in English and other languages.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. same) 1 a Japanese three-part poem of usu. 17 syllables. 2 an English imitation of this. Etymology: Jap.

Moby Thesaurus

English sonnet, Horatian ode, Italian sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet, Pindaric ode, Sapphic ode, Shakespearean sonnet, alba, anacreontic, balada, ballad, ballade, bucolic, canso, chanson, clerihew, dirge, dithyramb, eclogue, elegy, epic, epigram, epithalamium, epode, epopee, epopoeia, epos, georgic, ghazel, idyll, jingle, limerick, lyric, madrigal, monody, narrative poem, nursery rhyme, ode, palinode, pastoral, pastoral elegy, pastorela, pastourelle, poem, prothalamium, rhyme, rondeau, rondel, roundel, roundelay, satire, sestina, sloka, song, sonnet, sonnet sequence, tanka, tenso, tenzone, threnody, triolet, troubadour poem, verse, verselet, versicle, villanelle, virelay