Adjacent Words

Rhythm definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RHYTHM,
RHYTH'MICAL, a. [Gr., L. rhythmicus.]
Having proportion of sound, or one sound proportioned to another; harmonical.
Duly regulated by cadences, accents and quantities.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat" [syn: rhythm, beat, musical rhythm]
2: recurring at regular intervals [syn: rhythm, regular recurrence]
3: an interval during which a recurring sequence of events occurs; "the never-ending cycle of the seasons" [syn: cycle, rhythm, round]
4: the arrangement of spoken words alternating stressed and unstressed elements; "the rhythm of Frost's poetry" [syn: rhythm, speech rhythm]
5: natural family planning in which ovulation is assumed to occur 14 days before the onset of a period (the fertile period would be assumed to extend from day 10 through day 18 of her cycle) [syn: rhythm method of birth control, rhythm method, rhythm, calendar method of birth control, calendar method]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle French & Latin; Middle French rhythme, from Latin rhythmus, from Greek rhythmos, probably from rhein to flow — more at stream Date: 1560 1. a. an ordered recurrent alternation of strong and weak elements in the flow of sound and silence in speech b. a particular example or form of rhythm <iambic rhythm> 2. a. the aspect of music comprising all the elements (as accent, meter, and tempo) that relate to forward movement b. a characteristic rhythmic pattern <rumba rhythm>; also meter I,2 c. the group of instruments in a band supplying the rhythm — called also rhythm section 3. a. movement, fluctuation, or variation marked by the regular recurrence or natural flow of related elements <the rhythms of country life> b. the repetition in a literary work of phrase, incident, character type, or symbol 4. a regularly recurrent quantitative change in a variable biological process <a circadian rhythm> — compare biorhythm 5. the effect created by the elements in a play, movie, or novel that relate to the temporal development of the action 6. rhythm method

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose determined by various relations of long and short or accented and unaccented syllables. 2 the aspect of musical composition concerned with periodical accent and the duration of notes. 3 Physiol. movement with a regular succession of strong and weak elements. 4 a regularly recurring sequence of events. 5 Art a harmonious correlation of parts. Phrases and idioms: rhythm and blues popular music with a blues theme and a strong rhythm. rhythm method birth control by avoiding sexual intercourse when ovulation is likely to occur. rhythm section the part of a dance band or jazz band mainly supplying rhythm, usu. consisting of piano, bass, and drums. Derivatives: rhythmless adj. Etymology: F rhythme or L rhythmus f. Gk rhuthmos, rel. to rheo flow

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rhythm Rhythm, n. [F. rhythme, rythme, L. rhythmus, fr. Gr. ??? measured motion, measure, proportion, fr. "rei^n to flow. See Stream.] 1. In the widest sense, a dividing into short portions by a regular succession of motions, impulses, sounds, accents, etc., producing an agreeable effect, as in music poetry, the dance, or the like. 2. (Mus.) Movement in musical time, with periodical recurrence of accent; the measured beat or pulse which marks the character and expression of the music; symmetry of movement and accent. --Moore (Encyc.) 3. A division of lines into short portions by a regular succession of arses and theses, or percussions and remissions of voice on words or syllables. 4. The harmonious flow of vocal sounds.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(rhythms) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A rhythm is a regular series of sounds or movements. He had no sense of rhythm whatsoever... N-VAR 2. A rhythm is a regular pattern of changes, for example changes in your body, in the seasons, or in the tides. Begin to listen to your own body rhythms. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Periodical emphasis, regular or melodious movement, harmonious flow. 2. Rhyme, metre, verse, number.

Moby Thesaurus

Alexandrine, accent, accentuation, alternation, amphibrach, amphimacer, anacrusis, anapest, antispast, arrhythmia, arsis, bacchius, balance, beat, beating, beauty, cadence, cadency, caesura, catalexis, chloriamb, chloriambus, colon, concinnity, counterpoint, cretic, cyclicalness, dactyl, dactylic hexameter, diaeresis, dimeter, dipody, dochmiac, downbeat, drumming, elegiac, elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, emphasis, epitrite, equilibrium, euphony, feminine caesura, flutter, foot, harmony, heartbeat, heartthrob, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet, hexameter, hexapody, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter, ictus, intermittence, intermittency, ionic, jingle, level of stress, lilt, masculine caesura, measure, measuredness, meter, metrical accent, metrical foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metrics, metron, molossus, mora, movement, number, numbers, order, orderedness, oscillation, paeon, palpitation, pendulum motion, pentameter, pentapody, period, periodicalness, periodicity, piston motion, pitapat, pitter-patter, primary stress, proceleusmatic, proportion, prosodics, prosody, pulsation, pulse, pyrrhic, quantity, rat-a-tat, rataplan, reappearance, recurrence, regular wave motion, reoccurrence, return, rhyme, rhythmic pattern, rhythmical stress, seasonality, secondary stress, spondee, sprung rhythm, staccato, stress, stress accent, stress pattern, sweetness, swing, symmetry, syzygy, tempo, tertiary stress, tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, thesis, throb, throbbing, time, timing, tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochee, undulation, upbeat, weak stress