Word.ws English Dictionary

clerihew

Syllables: cle·ri·hew/ˈklɛɹɨˌhjuː/US/ˈklɛɹɪ̈ˌhju/

clerihew noun: a humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.

Noun (1)

clerihew (plural clerihews)

  1. A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.
    • CLERIHEW CONTEST. CNV announces a clerihew contest, with the best examples to be published in this newsletter.1984, Cum Notis Variorum: The Newsletter of the Music Library, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, Calif.: Music Library, University of California, Berkeley, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 115
    • He [Peter Warlock] was the writer of brilliant limericks and clerihews and had a fine line in barbed invective.2002, Trevor Hold, “Peter Warlock (1894–1930)”, in Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-composers, Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 330

Noun (2) capitalized: Clerihew

Clerihew (plural Clerihews)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of clerihew.
    • This form was initiated by Edmund Clerihew Bentley who throughout his life kept churning out Clerihews, the name they ultimately became known by; he had published three collections under the name E. Clerihew.2009, Paul Joel Freeman, “Perverse”, in Wit in English, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 256

clerihew meaning in Kannada

clerihew in Kannada

rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
ಕ್ಲೇರಿಹ್ಯೂ klērihyū

Forms of clerihew

pluralclerihews
alternative formClerihew
pluralClerihews

Origin of clerihew

Named after English humourist and novelist Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), who invented the rhyme.

Questions about clerihew

What does clerihew mean?
Clerihew means a humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.
What is clerihew in Kannada?
Clerihew in Kannada is ಕ್ಲೇರಿಹ್ಯೂ (klērihyū). See Clerihew meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is clerihew?
Clerihew is a noun.
How do you pronounce clerihew?
Clerihew is pronounced /ˈklɛɹɨˌhjuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of clerihew?
The plural of clerihew is clerihews.

Words near clerihew in the dictionary

  1. clericks
  2. clericocracy
  3. clerics
  4. clerid
  5. clerids
  6. clerihew
  7. clerihews
  8. clerisies
  9. clerisy
  10. clerite
  11. Clerith

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clerihew (page history and authors); Clerihew (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-clerihew.wav.

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