Word.ws English Dictionary

rhyme royal

rhyme royal noun: a form of English verse consisting of seven-line stanzas of iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of ababbcc, first represented in English in works by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400).

Noun

rhyme royal (countable and uncountable, plural rhymes royal)

  1. (uncountable) A form of English verse consisting of seven-line stanzas of iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of ababbcc, first represented in English in works by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400).
    • Perhaps the most engaging of the Rowley poems are "An Excelente Balade of Charitie," written in the rhyme royal; and "The Bristowe Tragedie," in the common ballad stanza.1898, Henry Augustin Beers, chapter 10, in 18th Century: A History of English Romanticism
  2. (countable) A single stanza of this form.
    • Chaucer for years before the Prologue to LGW had been writing heroic couplets at the close of each of his rhymes royal.1938 Jan, H. S. V. Jones, “Brief Mention”, in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 37, number 1, page 126

Synonyms of rhyme royal

Forms of rhyme royal

pluralrhymes royal
alternative formrime royal

Origin of rhyme royal

This term was reportedly first used in the mid-1800s.

Questions about rhyme royal

What does rhyme royal mean?
Rhyme royal means a form of English verse consisting of seven-line stanzas of iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of ababbcc, first represented in English in works by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400).
What part of speech is rhyme royal?
Rhyme royal is a noun.
What is the plural of rhyme royal?
The plural of rhyme royal is rhymes royal.

Words near rhyme royal in the dictionary

  1. rhyme letters
  2. rhyme nor reason
  3. rhyme off
  4. rhyme or reason
  5. rhyme out
  6. rhyme royal
  7. rhyme scheme
  8. rhyme schemes
  9. rhyme up
  10. rhyme-tag
  11. rhyme-tags

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rhyme royal (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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