| Basīṭ (Arabic: بسيط), or al-basīṭ (البسيط), is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. The word literally means "extended" or "spread out" in Arabic. Along with the ṭawīl, kāmil, and wāfir, it is one of the four commonest metres used in pre-Islamic and classical Arabic poetry. The metrical form is often as follows (where "–" is a long syllable, "u" is a short syllable, and "x" a syllable which can be either long or short):
| x – u – | x u – | – – u – | u u – |The mnemonic words (tafāʿīl) used by Arab prosodists to describe this metre are: Mustafʿilun Fāʿilun Mustafʿilun Faʿilun (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَاعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَعِلُنْ). |
