rhythmicaladj.
/ˈrɪðmᵻkl/, U.S. /ˈrɪðmᵻk(ə)l/ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > [adjective] > composing verse
rhyming1566
rhythmical1567
versifying1580
versing1630
rhythmopoetic1865
1567 T. Drant in tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie To Rdr. sig. *v To become a sillye translator rythmical and thervnto an harde wryter.
2.
a. Of language, verse, music, etc.: characterized by rhythm; composed rhythmically, written in verse as opposed to prose; having a pleasant or flowing rhythm; = rhythmic adj. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > rhythm > [adjective]
numbrousa1586
numerous1589
rhythmical1589
rhythmica1631
numerose1714
numerical1749
rhythmal1812
rhythmopoetic1908
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. vii. 66 As the smoothnesse of your words and sillables..make with the Greekes and Latines the body of their verses numerous or Rithmicall.
1609 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. (ed. 2) Rhythmicall, made in meeter.
1725 R. Brunne's Chron. p. lxi The old Rhythmical Life of this holy Virgin.
1774 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772 15 The old women, when they undertake a cure, mumble certain rhythmical incantations.
1784 W. Hayley Mausoleum iii. i, in Plays 423 I was mad, to think woman a creature of reason, And on widowhood's slippery virtues to raise The luminous fabric of rhythmical praise!
1824 T. F. Dibdin Libr. Compan. 684 (note) That Lord Surrey was the first who gave us metrical instead of rhythmical versification.
1833 Christian Examiner & Church of Ireland Mag. May 321 The scholastic writers divided this new poetry into two kinds, the Rhythmical and the Leonine. The Rhythmical are those verses that contain an equal number of syllables, and have rhyming terminations.
1846 G. Grote Hist. Greece II. i. xxi. 187 The rhapsode recited..a species of musical and rhythmical declamation.
1872 W. Minto Man. Eng. Prose Lit. 337 In Cowley we see..the first habitual practice of the chief arts of rhythmical balance.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 255/1 Some of the sermons in the second series had been written in a kind of rhythmical, alliterative prose.
1983 P. Roach Eng. Phonetics & Phonology 120 It has often been claimed that English speech is rhythmical, and that the rhythm is detectable in the regular occurrence of stressed syllables.
1996 Hamilton (Ont.) Spectator (Nexis) 9 Mar. 4 A little girl slips away to her secret hiding place in an old willow tree to savor its special delights before the rest of the world awakes, in Chase's dreamy, rhythmical poem.
b. Of an action, movement, sound, event, etc.: that has a marked or recurrent pattern; regularly occurring; that generates a rhythm; = rhythmic adj. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > frequency > [adjective] > rhythmical or measured
measurable1569
rhythmetic1603
measured1604
cadent1613
rhythmicala1620
rhythmic1773
cadenceda1790
rhythmetical1801
rhythmed1832
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > rhythm > [adjective] > relating to or involving rhythm
rhythmicala1620
a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. ii. §4. 315 As they ascribe a rythmicall motion, vnto the Starres; so doe they an harmonicall, vnto the Heauens.
1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 263 The first music mentioned in the Grecian history..consisted of a rhythmical clash of swords.
1847 G. Grote Hist. Greece III. ii. xvi. 285 Dancing or rhythmical gesticulation.
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. xi. §94. 318 Double Stars..exhibit settled rhythmical actions.
1869 J. Phillips Vesuvius v. 145 The evolution of the steam is by fits and starts, or even..by rhythmical puffs and bursts.
1913 W. Cather O Pioneers! ii. i. 80 Marie Shabata settled herself in her seat and watched the rhythmical movement of the young man's long arms.
1956 I. Murdoch Flight from Enchanter xi. 148 The old machine was harder work, but she liked the way in which it demanded the rhythmical co-operation of her whole body and left her tired.
2001 Daily Tel. 29 Jan. 16/3 Plenty of gentle rhythmical exercise such as swimming, aqua aerobics or Pilates is best.
c. Physiology. = rhythmic adj. 2c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > system > [adjective] > organ > types of functions
occult1651
systolic1653
rhythmic1826
rhythmical1829
involuntary1840
1829 London Med. Gaz. 31 Jan. 276/2 The action of the arteries, the pulse, which hitherto, whatever may have been its frequency or its force, has been almost constantly rhythmical and regular.
1866 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. ii. 41 The contraction of the heart is rhythmical, two short contractions of its upper and lower halves respectively being followed by a pause of the whole.
1883 Nature 22 Mar. 487 In rhythmical actions, such as that of the respiration.
1930 H. G. Newth Marshall & Hurst's Junior Course Pract. Zool. (ed. 11) xii. 246 Respiration is effected by rhythmical compression and expansion of the muscular pharynx.
1958 J. E. Morton Molluscs vii. 127 In the freshwater Valvata tricarinata there is a more complicated rhythmical sexuality, with a regular return to a male phase after the eggs are laid.
1972 Sci. Amer. Feb. 85/3 Subjects with a great deal of experience in meditation showed other changes: the alpha waves slowed..and rhythmical theta waves at six to seven cycles per second appeared.
2009 Jrnl. Insect Physiol. 55 518/2 In insects, this pump is composed of muscles whose rhythmical contractions produce..expansion of the preoral or the pharyngeal cavity.
d. Art. That harmonizes or coheres; that constitutes a regular or repeated pattern. Cf. rhythmic adj. 2d.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > work of art > [adjective] > qualities of work of art
uniforma1552
sweet1662
stiff1779
chargeda1806
late1851
ineffective1858
detailed1867
schematic1868
rhythmical1880
functional1881
late-period1927
engaged1947
engagé1955
retardataire1958
1880 C. Waldstein Pythagoras of Rhegion 22 The general modelling and the rhythmical treatment of the whole figure.
1936 Metrop. Museum of Art Bull. 31 108/2 On a tall marble slab are carved two figures in a beautifully rhythmical composition—a woman leaning against a pillar and a little attendant holding her mistress' jewel box.
1989 Woman's Art Jrnl. 10 29/1 In both compositions, sinuous, curvilinear lines weave the figures and natural elements together in a connective, rhythmical harmony.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > rhyme > [adjective]
rhymedc1450
rhyming1563
rhythmical1599
chimed1646
rhythming1655
rhythmed1695
rhymya1704
1599 (title) The first Booke of the Preservation of King Henrie the vij... Compiled in English rythmicall Hexameters.
1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor i. ii. 46 An essay of a very ancient rythmicall translation of the Psalmes.
1695 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. III. iv. 174 The other Assertion,..that the Psalms and other Pieces of Hebrew Poetry are always Rhythmical, necessarily infers a great many Faults..in the Scripture.
1706 A. Bedford Temple Musick vii. 126 If the Psalms could be turned into a Rhythmical Poesy, with the Alteration only of a few Verses.
4. Of, relating to, involving, or concerning rhythm; = rhythmic adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > duration of notes > proportion of notes or rhythm > [adjective]
rhythmic1603
rhythmicala1620
rhymical1684
rhymic?1775
a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. xii. §5. 343 All the seuerall sorts of Musick, both Harmonical, Rithmicall, and Organicall.
1622 H. Peacham Compl. Gentleman iii. 29 Musicians, without which Grammar is imperfect in that part of Prosodia, that dealeth onely with Meter and Rhithmicall proportions.
1688 T. Salmon Proposal to perform Musick i. 4 All the Variety of Rythmical Feet should have their proper Movements.
1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 72 The first part of these rhythmical observations shall be confined to lyric poetry.
1846 E. A. Poe M. E. Hewitt in Wks. (1864) III. 118 Less through rythmical skill than a musical ear.
1867 G. A. Macfarren Six Lect. Harmony i. 27 Let me define this term, close, as meaning the completion of any rhythmical period.
1880 F. Hueffer in G. Grove Dict. Music II. 149/1 A greater liberty in the rhythmical phrasing of the music is warranted by the metre of the poem itself.
1936 F. G. Hawkes Stud. in Time & Tempo vi. 35 If the proper rhythmical effect..is to be secured, the observance of accurate and strict tempo becomes an absolute necessity.
1992 Folk Roots Sept. 23/2 The rhythmical subtleties of morris tunes are so exciting because you've got cross rhythms if you play the tunes to the steps.
Derivatives
rhythmiˈcality n. (a) rhythmic quality or nature; (b) sense of rhythm.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > frequency > [noun] > rhythm or measure
cadencec1384
modulation1531
measure1576
timekeeping1593
cadency1628
rhythmus1778
rhythmicality1817
1817 L. Hunt in Examiner 6 July 429/1 By no contrivance of any sort can we prevent this from jumping out of the heroic measure into mere rhythmicality.
1880 Philos. Trans. 1879 (Royal Soc.) 171 171 May it not be that those contractile tissues which in the higher animals manifest rhythmic action are the contractile tissues which have longest retained their primitive endowment of rhythmicality?
1885 G. J. Romanes Jelly-fish 186 The contractile tissues which have longest retained their primitive endowment of rhythmicality.
1946 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets xiii. 320 An exciting and very Negroid rhythmicality.
1988 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 33 313 A subset of broader prosodic systems comprising such categories as tone, pitch, range, loudness, rhythmicality, pause, tension, and voice quality.
2008 Daily Tel. 2 July 27/2 All the fevered exuberance, brilliance and wily rhythmicality conformed to the image of Walton familiar from such works as Belshazzar's Feast.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1567