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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rhythm.

The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹɪð.əm/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈɹɪð.m̩]Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.

    countable · uncountable
    Dance to the rhythm of the music.
    The audience clapped in rhythm as I sang.

  2. A specifically defined pattern of such variation.

    countable · uncountable
    Most dances have a rhythm as distinctive as the Iambic verse in poetry

  3. A flow, repetition or regularity.

    countable · uncountable
    Once you get the rhythm of it, the job will become easy.

  4. The tempo or speed of a beat, song or repetitive event.

    countable · uncountable
    We walked with a quick, even rhythm.

  5. The musical instruments which provide rhythm (mainly; not or less melody) in a musical ensemble.

    countable · uncountable
    The Baroque term basso continuo is virtually equivalent to rhythm

  6. A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.

    countable · uncountable
    The rhythm of the seasons dominates agriculture as well as wildlife

  7. Controlled repetition of a phrase, incident or other element as a stylistic figure in literature and other narrative arts; the effect it creates.

    countable · uncountable
    The running gag is a popular rhythm in motion pictures and theater comedy

  8. A person's natural feeling for rhythm.

    countable · uncountable
    That girl's got rhythm, watch her dance!
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ser-? Proto-Indo-European *srew- Proto-Indo-European *sru-dʰ-mo-s Proto-Hellenic *hrutʰmós Ancient Greek ῥῠθμός (rhŭthmós)bor. Latin rhythmusder. English rhythm First coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “any measured flow or movement, symmetry, rhythm”), from ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow, run, stream, gush”).

verb/ˈɹɪð.əm/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈɹɪð.m̩]Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. To impart a (particular) rhythm to.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ser-? Proto-Indo-European *srew- Proto-Indo-European *sru-dʰ-mo-s Proto-Hellenic *hrutʰmós Ancient Greek ῥῠθμός (rhŭthmós)bor. Latin rhythmusder. English rhythm First coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “any measured flow or movement, symmetry, rhythm”), from ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow, run, stream, gush”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.