rhythm

UK/ˈɹɪð.əm/

rhythm noun: the variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.

Noun

rhythm (countable and uncountable, plural rhythms)

The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.
- Dance to the rhythm of the music.
- The audience clapped in rhythm as I sang.
A specifically defined pattern of such variation.
- Most dances have a rhythm as distinctive as the Iambic verse in poetry
A flow, repetition or regularity.
- Once you get the rhythm of it, the job will become easy.
- Will this decision-making paralysis continue until Great British Railways has been established and settled into a new rhythm? If so, passengers on the West of England line are in for a rough ride, as the reliability of these tired old British Rail trains inevitably declines, and maintenance costs...2026 February 18, Paul Clifton, “West of England Line problems laid bare”, in RAIL, page 7
The tempo or speed of a beat, song or repetitive event.
- We walked with a quick, even rhythm.
- If you hum or whistle the rhythm of the common English metres,— of the decasyllabic quatrain, or the octosyllabic with alternate sexisyllabic, or other rhythms, […]1872, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poetry and Imagination
The musical instruments which provide rhythm (mainly; not or less melody) in a musical ensemble.
- The Baroque term basso continuo is virtually equivalent to rhythm
Synonyms:

rhythm section
A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.
- The rhythm of the seasons dominates agriculture as well as wildlife
Controlled repetition of a phrase, incident or other element as a stylistic figure in literature and other narrative arts; the effect it creates.
- The running gag is a popular rhythm in motion pictures and theater comedy
A person's natural feeling for rhythm.
- That girl's got rhythm, watch her dance!
- I'm never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm1984, George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley, “Careless Whisper”

Verb

rhythm (third-person singular simple present rhythms, present participle rhythming, simple past and past participle rhythmed)

(transitive) To impart a (particular) rhythm to.
- The pamphlet, writes Muray, 'is the supremely affirmative form in which nothing can be turned around, rhythmed or played with in synonyms and rhymes'.1987, Ian Noble, Language and Narration in Céline’s Writings, page 194
- And so the microchip, say, reflects a certain electronically driven speed of society, just as the invention of a flint axe, reflected a society that was rhythmed fully by biological and environmental temporalities.2017, Robert Hassan, The Age of Distraction

rhythm meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rhythm in Hindi

variation of strong and weak elements of sounds over time: ताल tāl

rhythm in Tamil

variation of strong and weak elements of sounds over time: தாளம் tāḷam

rhythm in Marathi

variation of strong and weak elements of sounds over time: ताल tāl
tempo or speed of a beat, song, or repeated event: ताल tāl

rhythm in Urdu

variation of strong and weak elements of sounds over time: تال tāl

More languagesFewer languages

rhythm in Bengali: তাল tal
rhythm in Telugu: లయ laya
rhythm in Malayalam: താളം tāḷaṁ
rhythm in Kannada: ಮರುಕಳಿಕೆ marukaḷike
rhythm in Gujarati: તાલ tāl
rhythm in Sanskrit: करण káraṇa
rhythm in Assamese: তাল tal
rhythm in Nepali: ताल tāl
rhythm in Tagalog: ritmo, indayog, aliw-iw
rhythm in Arabic: إِيقَاع ʔiqāʕ
rhythm in Malay: rentak, ritma
rhythm in Indonesian: ritme
rhythm in Thai: จังหวะ jang-wà
rhythm in Vietnamese: nhịp điệu
rhythm in Myanmar: စည်းချက် cany:hkyak, ရစ်သမ် racsam

Examples of rhythm in a sentence

Aboard a train, the rhythm of the wheels sounds to him like "wottachump, wottachump, wottachump."2025 October 2, Dwight Garner, “Book Review: 'Shadow Ticket,' by Thomas Pynchon”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The...
Will this decision-making paralysis continue until Great British Railways has been established and settled into a new rhythm?2026 February 18, Paul Clifton, “West of England Line problems laid bare”, in RAIL, page 7:
Bigeminous rhythm was followed by bursts of extrasystoles.1967, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, New York:
ISP places are, therefore, not only considered places of teaching and learning performances (see point 4): the different locations rhythmed the entire programme.2021, Sónia Pedro Sebastião, Susana de Carvalho Spínola, Diplomacy, Organisations and Citizens, page 316:

All 40 example sentences with rhythm

Synonyms of rhythm

Forms of rhythm

Noun
plural	rhythms
Verb
third-person singular present	rhythms
present participle	rhythming
past participle	rhythmed
past	rhythmed

Plural of rhythm: rhythms

Origin of rhythm

First coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “any measured flow or movement, symmetry, rhythm”), from ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow, run, stream, gush”).

Words formed from rhythm

Phrases with rhythm

Questions about rhythm

What does rhythm mean?: Rhythm means the variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.
What is rhythm in Hindi?: Rhythm in Hindi is ताल (tāl). See Rhythm meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rhythm in a sentence?: Aboard a train, the rhythm of the wheels sounds to him like "wottachump, wottachump, wottachump."
What part of speech is rhythm?: Rhythm can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce rhythm?: Rhythm is pronounced /ˈɹɪð.əm/ (UK).
What is the plural of rhythm?: The plural of rhythm is rhythms.

Words near rhythm in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: rhythm (page history and authors); करण (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); তাল (Assamese) (page history and authors); ताल (Nepali) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rhythm.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rhythm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rhythm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.