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rhythm

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

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Etymology

First 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

  • IPA(key): /ˈɹɪð.əm/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -ɪðəm

Noun

rhythm (countable and uncountable, plural rhythms)

  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.
    Dance to the rhythm of the music.
  2. A specifically defined pattern of such variation.
    Most dances have a rhythm as distinctive as the Iambic verse in poetry
  3. A flow, repetition or regularity.
    Once you get the rhythm of it, the job will become easy.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.
    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.
    The running gag is a popular rhythm in motion pictures and theater comedy
  8. A person's natural feeling for rhythm.
    That girl's got rhythm, watch her dance!

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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

Verb

rhythm (third-person singular simple present rhythms, present participle rhythming, simple past and past participle rhythmed)

  1. (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.
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