Final answer:
Iambic pentameter is a type of poetic meter with five iambs per line, each consisting of one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable, totaling ten syllables per line.
Step-by-step explanation:
The characteristic pattern of iambic pentameter consists of a line of verse with five sets of two syllables, where each set, or 'iamb,' contains an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. In other words, a line of iambic pentameter has a total of ten syllables. For example, the line 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 is written in iambic pentameter, where the bold syllables are stressed: 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'.