rhyme

[ rahym ]
See synonyms for: rhymerhymedrhymesrhyming on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. identity in sound of some part, especially the end, of words or lines of verse.

  2. a word agreeing with another in terminal sound: Find is a rhyme for mind and womankind.

  1. verse or poetry having correspondence in the terminal sounds of the lines.

  2. a poem or piece of verse having such correspondence.

verb (used with object),rhymed, rhym·ing.
  1. to treat in rhyme, as a subject; turn into rhyme, as something in prose.

  2. to compose (verse or the like) in metrical form with rhymes.

  1. to use (a word) as a rhyme to another word; use (words) as rhymes.

verb (used without object),rhymed, rhym·ing.
  1. to make rhyme or verse; versify.

  2. to use rhyme in writing verse.

  1. to form a rhyme, as one word or line with another: a word that rhymes with orange.

  2. to be composed in metrical form with rhymes, as verse: poetry that rhymes.

Idioms about rhyme

  1. rhyme or reason, logic, sense, or plan: There was no rhyme or reason for what they did.

Origin of rhyme

1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English rime, from Old French, derivative of rimer “to rhyme,” from unattested Gallo-Romance rimāre “to put in a row,” ultimately derived from Old High German rīm “series, row”; probably not connected with Latin rhythmus “rhythm,” although current spelling (from about 1600) is apparently by association with this word
  • Sometimes rime .

word story For rhyme

The spelling and etymology of the noun rhyme fall between two stools. Its Middle English forms rym (in The Canterbury Tales, from around 1387), ryym (in Wycliffe’s Bible ), and rime derive from Anglo-French, Old French, and Middle French rime, ryme. Note the absence of h in all these spellings.
The source of the French rime is from an unrecorded Gallo-Romance verb rimāre “to set in a row,” a derivative of the Germanic noun rīm “number, series,” and possibly developing the senses “series of rhymed syllables” and “rhymed verse.”
The English spelling rhyme dates from around 1600 and shows the influence of the unrelated Latin rhetorical term rhythmus “a patterned sequence of sounds; measured flow of words or phrases in prose,” a borrowing from Greek rhythmós, which has the same meanings.

Other words from rhyme

  • rhymer, noun
  • in·ter·rhyme, verb (used without object), in·ter·rhymed, in·ter·rhym·ing.
  • mis·rhymed, adjective
  • non·rhyme, noun
  • non·rhymed, adjective
  • non·rhym·ing, adjective
  • outrhyme, verb (used with object), out·rhymed, out·rhym·ing.
  • un·rhyme, verb (used with object), un·rhymed, un·rhym·ing.
  • well-rhymed, adjective

Words that may be confused with rhyme

Words Nearby rhyme

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rhyme in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for rhyme

rhyme

archaic rime

/ (raɪm) /


noun
  1. identity of the terminal sounds in lines of verse or in words

  2. a word that is identical to another in its terminal sound: ``while'' is a rhyme for ``mile''

  1. a verse or piece of poetry having corresponding sounds at the ends of the lines: the boy made up a rhyme about his teacher

  2. any verse or piece of poetry

  3. rhyme or reason sense, logic, or meaning: this proposal has no rhyme or reason

verb
  1. to use (a word) or (of a word) to be used so as to form a rhyme; be or make identical in sound

  2. to render (a subject) into rhyme

  1. to compose (verse) in a metrical structure

Origin of rhyme

1
C12: from Old French rime, from rimer to rhyme, from Old High German rīm a number; spelling influenced by rhythm

Derived forms of rhyme

  • rhymeless or rimeless, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for rhyme

rhyme

A similarity of sound between words, such as moon, spoon, croon, tune, and June. Rhyme is often employed in verse.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.