rhythm
English
editEtymology
editFirst coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “any measured flow or movement, symmetry, rhythm”), from ῥέω (rhéō, “I flow, run, stream, gush”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editrhythm (countable and uncountable, plural rhythms)
- The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.
- Dance to the rhythm of the music.
- A specifically defined pattern of such variation.
- Most dances have a rhythm as distinctive as the Iambic verse in poetry
- A flow, repetition or regularity.
- Once you get the rhythm of it, the job will become easy.
- The tempo or speed of a beat, song or repetitive event.
- We walked with a quick, even rhythm.
- 1872, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poetry and Imagination:
- If you hum or whistle the rhythm of the common English metres,— of the decasyllabic quatrain, or the octosyllabic with alternate sexisyllabic, or other rhythms, […]
- 1967, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, New York:
- Bigeminous rhythm was followed by bursts of extrasystoles.
- The musical instruments which provide rhythm (mainly; not or less melody) in a musical ensemble.
- The Baroque term basso continuo is virtually equivalent to rhythm
- A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.
- The rhythm of the seasons dominates agriculture as well as wildlife
- Controlled repetition of a phrase, incident or other element as a stylistic figure in literature and other narrative arts; the effect it creates.
- The running gag is a popular rhythm in motion pictures and theater comedy
- A person's natural feeling for rhythm.
- That girl's got rhythm, watch her dance!
Synonyms
edit- meter / metre
- prosody
- (instruments providing rhythm) rhythm section
Derived terms
edit- battle rhythm
- biorhythm
- circadian rhythm
- counterrhythm
- cross-rhythm
- dysrhythmia
- escape rhythm
- homorhythm
- isorhythm
- Lombardic rhythm
- Lombard rhythm
- plagiarhythm
- polyrhythm
- poly-rhythm
- rhythmal
- rhythm and blues
- rhythm and grime
- rhythm band
- rhythm box
- rhythmed
- rhythmer
- rhythm game
- rhythm guitar
- rhythmic
- rhythmical
- rhythming
- rhythmise
- rhythmite
- rhythmless
- rhythm method
- rhythmogenetic
- rhythmology
- rhythmometer
- rhythm pole
- rhythm royal
- rhythm stick
- sinus rhythm
- tachyrhythmia
- theta rhythm
Related terms
editTranslations
editvariation of strong and weak elements of sounds over time
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tempo or speed of a beat, song, or repeated event
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rhythm section — see rhythm section
flow, repetition or regularity
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
editrhythm (third-person singular simple present rhythms, present participle rhythming, simple past and past participle rhythmed)
- (transitive) To impart a (particular) rhythm to.
- 1987, Ian Noble, Language and Narration in Céline’s Writings, page 194:
- The pamphlet, writes Muray, 'is the supremely affirmative form in which nothing can be turned around, rhythmed or played with in synonyms and rhymes'.
- 2017, Robert Hassan, The Age of Distraction:
- And so the microchip, say, reflects a certain electronically driven speed of society, just as the invention of a flint axe, reflected a society that was rhythmed fully by biological and environmental temporalities.
- 2021, Sónia Pedro Sebastião, Susana de Carvalho Spínola, Diplomacy, Organisations and Citizens, page 316:
- ISP places are, therefore, not only considered places of teaching and learning performances (see point 4): the different locations rhythmed the entire programme.
- 2024, Marie-Rose Cardat, Why I left my Hometown, page 184:
- rhythmed by a television show and a meal, as we grow older, things change. rhythmed by a baby's cry and school holidays, as we grow older, things change. rhythmed by monthly bills and a husband's envies, as we grow older, some things never change.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *srew-
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪðəm
- Rhymes:English/ɪðəm/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs