rhythm

plural rhythms

1. countableuncountableThe 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 more examples

   The audience clapped in rhythm as I sang.

   Hicks is both thwarter and thwartee of Daedalean plots. Aboard a train, the rhythm of the wheels sounds to him like "wottachump, wottachump, wottachump."

   2025 October 2, Dwight Garner, “Book Review: 'Shadow Ticket,' by Thomas Pynchon”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2025

2. countableuncountableA specifically defined pattern of such variation.

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

3. countableuncountableA flow, repetition or regularity.

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

   1 more example

   Will this decision-making paralysis continue until Great British Railways has been established and settled into a new rhythm? If so, passengers on the West of England line are in for a rough ride, as the reliability of these tired old British Rail trains inevitably declines, and maintenance costs rise.

   2026 February 18, Paul Clifton, “West of England Line problems laid bare”, in RAIL, page 7

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

   We walked with a quick, even rhythm.

   2 more examples

   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, […]

   1872, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poetry and Imagination

   Bigeminous rhythm was followed by bursts of extrasystoles.

   1967, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, New York

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

   The Baroque term basso continuo is virtually equivalent to rhythm

   Synonyms: rhythm section

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

   The rhythm of the seasons dominates agriculture as well as wildlife

7. countableuncountableControlled 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. countableuncountableA person's natural feeling for rhythm.

   That girl's got rhythm, watch her dance!

   1 more example

   I'm never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm

   1984, George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley, “Careless Whisper”

present singular third person rhythms · participle present rhythming · participle past rhythmed · past rhythmed

1. transitiveTo impart a (particular) rhythm to.

   The pamphlet, writes Muray, 'is the supremely affirmative form in which nothing can be turned around, rhythmed or played with in synonyms and rhymes'.

   1987, Ian Noble, Language and Narration in Céline’s Writings, page 194

   3 more examples

   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.

   2017, Robert Hassan, The Age of Distraction

   ISP places are, therefore, not only considered places of teaching and learning performances (see point 4): the different locations rhythmed the entire programme.

   2021, Sónia Pedro Sebastião, Susana de Carvalho Spínola, Diplomacy, Organisations and Citizens, page 316

   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.

   2024, Marie-Rose Cardat, Why I left my Hometown, page 184