# rhythm

Pronunciation: say "RITH-uhm" /ˈɹɪð.m̩/

## Noun

1. The pattern of strong and weak sounds (their length and stress) that gives speech or music its beat or meter over time.
   - Simple: The pattern of strong and weak beats in music or speech as it moves through time.
   - _The song's complex rhythm made it hard for beginners to clap along._
   - _Her speech had a natural rhythm, rising and falling with each phrase._
2. A specific, defined pattern of strong and weak sounds: for example, the steady three-beat pattern of a waltz.
   - Simple: A set pattern of beats that has its own name, like a waltz or a march.
   - _Each Latin dance has its own rhythm that musicians must follow exactly._
   - _The composer built the piece around a five-beat rhythm rarely heard in pop music._
3. A sense of flow, repetition, or regularity in some ongoing process or activity.
   - Simple: A regular flow or pattern in how something keeps happening.
   - _After a few weeks the new team settled into a comfortable working rhythm._
   - _The seasons give the year a familiar rhythm of growth and rest._
4. The speed or tempo of a beat, a song, or a repeating event.
   - Simple: How fast or slow a beat, song, or repeated action goes.
   - _The DJ increased the rhythm until the whole floor was dancing._
   - _She quickened the rhythm of the chant as the crowd grew louder._
5. A person's inborn feeling for beat and timing in music or movement.
   - Simple: A natural sense for beats and timing that lets someone move or play in time.
   - _He plays guitar well but has no rhythm, so he struggles to stay in time._
   - _Good dancers rely on rhythm as much as on memorized steps._
6. The group of instruments in an ensemble that mainly supply the beat rather than the melody.
   - Simple: The instruments in a band that keep the beat instead of playing the tune.
   - _On most tracks he plays rhythm, leaving the solos to the lead guitarist._
   - _A tight rhythm of bass, drums, and piano anchored the whole performance._
7. Deliberate repetition of a phrase, event, or other element as a stylistic device in literature and narrative arts, together with the effect it produces.
   - Simple: The planned repeating of words or events in a story to create a pattern or feeling.
   - _The novel achieves its rhythm through recurring images of water and departure._
   - _Repeating the opening phrase at each chapter's close gives the memoir a quiet rhythm._
8. A regular, repeating change in some measurable, often natural, process.
   - Simple: A regular change that repeats in a natural process, like day and night.
   - _Scientists study the body's circadian rhythm to understand jet lag._
   - _Ocean tides rise and fall in a steady rhythm tied to the moon._

## Verb

9. To give a particular pattern of beats or timing to something.
   - Simple: To give something a beat or a pattern of timing.
   - _Her months of recovery were rhythmed by hospital visits and short walks around the block._
   - _In the monastery, seven daily services rhythm the hours from before dawn until night._

## Origin

First coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós), meaning any measured flow or movement, symmetry, or rhythm, which came from ῥέω (rhéō, 'I flow, run, stream').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/rhythm (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).