Trivia Time

Which poet is known for playful rhyme schemes?

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rhyme

American  

[rahym] / raɪm /

Sometimes rime

noun

• rhymes
  plural

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.

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

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

5. verse.

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verb (used with object)

• rhymes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rhymed,
  past participle,  past
• rhyming
  present participle

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.

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

verb (used without object)

• rhymes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rhymed,
  past participle,  past
• rhyming
  present participle

1. to make rhyme or verse; versify.

2. to use rhyme in writing verse.

3. to form a rhyme, as one word or line with another.

   a word that rhymes with orange.

4. to be composed in metrical form with rhymes, as verse.

   poetry that rhymes.

idioms

1. rhyme or reason, logic, sense, or plan.

   There was no rhyme or reason for what they did.

rhyme British  

/ 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''

3. a verse or piece of poetry having corresponding sounds at the ends of the lines

   the boy made up a rhyme about his teacher

4. any verse or piece of poetry

5. sense, logic, or meaning

   this proposal has no rhyme or reason

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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

3. to compose (verse) in a metrical structure

rhyme Cultural  

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonrhyme
  noun
• rhymer
  noun
• outrhyme
  verb (used with object)
• unrhyme
  verb (used with object)
• interrhyme
  verb (used without object)
• misrhymed
  adjective
• nonrhymed
  adjective
• nonrhyming
  adjective
• rhymeless
  adjective
• well-rhymed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• rhymes
  plural

Participles

• rhyming
  present
• rhymed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• rhyme
  simple
• rhymes
  simple
• have rhymed
  perfect
• has rhymed
  perfect
• am rhyming
  progressive
• are rhyming
  progressive
• is rhyming
  progressive
• have been rhyming
  perfect progressive
• has been rhyming
  perfect progressive

Past

• rhymed
  simple
• had rhymed
  perfect
• was rhyming
  progressive
• were rhyming
  progressive
• had been rhyming
  perfect progressive

Future

• will rhyme
  simple
• will have rhymed
  perfect
• will be rhyming
  progressive
• will have been rhyming
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of rhyme

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

Explanation

A rhyme is when the ending sounds of two words sound alike — like "mouse" and "house" or "complain" and "sustain." If you have a knack for rhyme, you might have a bright future as a poet. “True wit is nature to advantage dress'd; / What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd”: lines of rhyme written by English poet Alexander Pope. The way “dress’d” and “express’d” sound, that’s rhyme. Rhyme shares the same Latin root as rhythm, and poetry that rhymes does have a rhythm to it, like in a song. Rhyme is a noun for similar sounds or a poem that uses rhyme, and it’s also a verb, like saying, “What rhymes with orange?”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rhyme rhymes rhymed rhyming

The story, which is told entirely in rhyme, follows Crumble the cat on his daring garden adventures.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

Month after month, spies secretly met in a secure compound to discuss rhyme schemes, structural forms and heroic odes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Its name is inspired by the nursery rhyme Old Mother Goose, reflecting the idea of an ancient goose emerging from the mud of a fossil deposit.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026

Their lead single “Fabienk” is studded with hair-trigger riffs — if you can even call them that — that mix the playful nursery rhyme melodies of Battles with the no-wave drone of Sonic Youth.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026

Gran was sewing near the fire and didn’t stop her work when I entered, but greeted me with a smile and a rhyme.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

“The parents learn the value of those interactions with their children. The importance of spending time truly talking, not just directive talk … but open-ended questions, using songs and rhymes, storytelling, descriptive language.”

From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026

The problem with the 2030s is that it rhymes with the 1930s, which was a horrible period for geopolitical crises.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

What follows are flights of wordplay, jokes, tragedies and rhymes “meant to be spoken aloud, as a form of conjuring back.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Dixon's fast-paced rhymes helped the songs stand out on the radio, and she became known for phrases such as "We're coming back strong", "M-I-S-T-double-E-Q", "Away we go" and "Enter!"

From BBC ● May 22, 2026

Dad would pet my hair, sing me French nursery rhymes, and tell funny stories until I fell asleep.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

“The struggles of these ordinary farming folk in rural China really rhymed with what was suddenly happening to farming folk in the U.S.A.,” says Peter Conn, emeritus professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 21, 2026

When they accepted the award, Montenegro named a dozen Venezuelan musicians in a rhymed speech and urged his countrymen to keep their heads up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2025

In 2002, he even made fun of the situation with the self-deprecating I Will Talk And Hollywood Will Listen, in which the title rhymed with the lyric "Mr Spielberg look just what you're missing".

From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2024

The Shafer Commission's report rhymed with research done at the time by similar bodies in France and the U.K.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2023

If you spill it, it gets gross, and we couldn’t figure an appropriate word that rhymed with “golden” or “foldin’,” so just don’t do it.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles

Warmer seas help spawn Pacific hurricanes, which have already battered Hawai‘i this year. As I write this, rhyming storms named Polo and Nolo threaten to bring flooding to Hawai‘i and Mexico.

From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026

One story is told in rhyming couplets and another is conveyed entirely in images of paw and footprints.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

MS Now‘s Jacob Soboroff played Mamdani the rhyming boast that begin’s “My mayor’s Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish.”

From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2026

Both books tell a tale about an adventure in a woodland full of animals, with the story told in rhyming couplets.

From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026

There are seven of them, haikus mostly but rhyming ones, too.

From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson

Related Words

• cadence
• poem
• poetry
• rhythm
• tune
• verse