The long-short-long structure is known as a cretic, so the basic metrical unit of the iambic trimeter may be said to be the following: anceps-cretic.

Notably, words seem to be chunked into pronunciation units she referred to as a foot, similar to a metrical unit in poetry.

In the classical languages, on the other hand, while the metrical units are similar, vowel length rather than stresses define the meter.

In Latin and Greek verse, on the other hand, while the metrical units are similar, not syllable stresses but syllable lengths are the component parts of meter.

These quatrain of four lines were usually composed in the metrical unit called Anuṣṭubh of Sanskrit poetry.

Dividing the line into metrical units:

Typically, a hokku is 17 moras (or onji) in length, composed of three metrical units of 5, 7 and 5 moras respectively.

Alone among the verses of a poem, the hokku includes a kireji or "cutting-word" which appears at the end of one of its three metrical units.

The typically used metrical unit of the power-to-weight ratio is which equals .

Early editions misunderstood the pindaric vagaries of the Threnodia and are sometimes erratic in using indentation to indicate metrical units.