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clerihew

[ kler-uh-hyoo ]
/ ˈklɛr əˌhyu /
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noun Prosody.
a light verse form, usually consisting of two couplets, with lines of uneven length and irregular meter, the first line usually containing the name of a well-known person.
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Origin of clerihew

1925–30; named after E. Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), English writer, its inventor
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use clerihew in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for clerihew

clerihew
/ (ˈklɛrɪˌhjuː) /

noun
a form of comic or satiric verse, consisting of two couplets of metrically irregular lines, containing the name of a well-known person

Word Origin for clerihew

C20: named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who invented it
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
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