rhyme
/rʌɪm
/noun [mass noun]
1Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry: poetic features such as rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration...
- The whole text, containing 114 chapters or surahs, with a total of 6,236 verses, thus has a lattice structure which connects every word with every other word by rhythm, rhyme and meaning.
- His speciality is ‘chatting’ - rhythm and rhyme in words spoken very fast over the top of garage or drum ‘n’ bass music.
- Through a series of linked sequences the programmes encourage the exploration of the sounds of words, the feel of rhythm and rhyme and the enjoyment of conversation and stories.
1.1 [count noun] A short poem in which the sound of the word or syllable at the end of each line corresponds with that at the end of another: Harriet sang Ben little rhymes...
- Like ballads, libellous rhymes and verses were intended for circulation across oral, scribal, and printed media.
- Words in poems or rhymes that sound the same but look different can be confusing for young children.
- Razzledazzle is a new literacy series from CBeebies where children and presenters play games, enjoy poems, rhymes and rhythms, sing and dance - and invite those at home to join in the fun.
1.2Rhyming poetry or verse: the clues were written in rhyme...
- The translation is partly in free verse and partly in rhyme.
- The artists built the city of Boston on stage, and I wrote a kind of heroic Shakespearean text in blank verse and rhyme (which two characters recited) about the city's history.
- Answer everyone in rhyme, to make heroic couplets.
Synonyms
poem, piece of poetry, verse, ditty, ode, limerick, song, jingle, verse composition, metrical composition;
(rhymes) poetry, versification, rhyming, doggerel
rare verselet
1.3 [count noun] A word that has the same sound as another: ‘gravel’ can be interpreted as an absurd rhyme for ‘travel’...
- I like some the choppy rhythm, and the alternating difficult rhymes - endless/tortoise, fractal/awful, commitments/balance.
- His nonsense-filled rhymes and seemingly drunken delivery set him apart from the other Wu members, while his unpredictable mic persona made him the hot - if not ridiculous - verse on many a song.
- The tetrameters are made to halt, by placing the strongest syntactical and rhetorical pauses within the short lines, while the strong rhymes chime out the line endings.
verb [no object]
1(Of a word, syllable, or line) have or end with a sound that corresponds to another: balloon rhymes with moon (as adjective rhyming) rhyming verses...
- Make up a line… make up another line, making sure that the last word rhymes with the previous last word, and ensure that the entire lyric is damn near meaningless.
- Orange will again become the word no other word rhymes with rather than the penultimate beacon of national anxiety.
- Couplets contain two lines with ending words rhyming.
1.1(Of a poem or song) be composed in rhyme: the poem would have been better if it rhymed...
- Standing there, hearing a distant roar of London traffic, the woman next to me looks disgruntled, something to do with the poems not rhyming.
- Our poems don't rhyme, because rhymes keep our chains of bondage on free thought, chains invented by men.
- This would not happen if the poem rhymed, but the poem does not rhyme.
1.2 [with object] (rhyme something with) Put a word together with (another word that has a corresponding sound), as when writing poetry: I’m not sure about rhyming perestroika with balalaika...
- The tune to ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ is butchered several times as the duo repeatedly prove my personal point that you should always refrain from trying to rhyme a word with ‘pizza.’
- The ‘cadena’ might be seen as a metaphor for the love that binds Lope and compels him to write; fittingly, it is rhymed with ‘pena.’
- The Lyre of Orpheus is Abattoir's romantic, come-down counterpart, though Cave can't resist rhyming the title with ‘orifice.’
1.3 literary Compose verse or poetry: Musa rhymed and sang...
- ‘We talked and rhymed and wrote silly poems,’ Alex said with a sigh.
- Since reggae had not yet attained great popularity in New York, Herc adapted his style by rhyming over the instrumental or percussion sections of the popular songs of that era.
- For some, hip-hop theater is a new form that brings the primary elements of hip-hop culture - rhyming, deejaying, graffiti art and dance - onto the proscenium stage.
Phrases
rhyme or reason
Derivatives
rhymeless
rhymer
- The presence of ‘rue’ in ‘untrue’ would have appealed to a poet of Southwell's microcosmic bent, and his choice suggests that he was a careful and aware rhymer.
- ‘Gettin' Down at the Amphitheater,’ which features De La Soul as guest rhymers, fondly evokes the film Wild Style, a 1982 tale of South Bronx graffiti, love, and rap.
- The rhymers par excellence have been the Cockneys of London, who have developed an elaborate and colourful collection of slang terms based on rhyme, such as trouble and strife for ‘wife’ and mince pies for ‘eyes’.
rhymist
Origin
Middle English rime, from Old French, from medieval Latin rithmus, via Latin from Greek rhuthmos (see rhythm). The current spelling was introduced in the early 17th century under the influence of rhythm.
Both rhyme and rhythm come from the same source, Greek rhuthmos. Before it referred to a musical beat rhythm meant ‘rhyme’. Since the 16th century a person wanting to complain that something completely lacked logical explanation might say that there was no rhyme or reason to it.