rhythm
rhythm
(rĭthʹəm) noun
1.
Movement or variation characterized by the regular recurrence or alternation of different quantities or conditions: the rhythm of the tides.
2.
The patterned, recurring alternations of contrasting elements of sound or speech.
3.
Music. a. A regular pattern formed by a series of notes of differing duration and stress. b. A specific kind of such a pattern: a waltz rhythm. c. A group of instruments supplying the rhythm in a band.
4. a. The pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in accentual verse or of long and short syllables in quantitative verse. b. The similar but less formal sequence of sounds in prose. c. A specific kind of metrical pattern or flow: iambic rhythm.
5. a. The sense of temporal development created in a work of literature or a film by the arrangement of formal elements such as the length of scenes, the nature and amount of dialogue, or the repetition of motifs. b. A regular or harmonious pattern created by lines, forms, and colors in painting, sculpture, and other visual arts.
6. The pattern of development produced in a literary or dramatic work by repetition of elements such as words, phrases, incidents, themes, images, and symbols.
7. Procedure or routine characterized by regularly recurring elements, activities, or factors: the rhythm of civilization; the rhythm of the lengthy negotiations.
[Latin rhythmus, from Greek rhuthmos.]
Synonyms:
rhythm, meter, cadence. These nouns are compared as they denote the regular patterned ebb and rise of accented and unaccented sounds, especially in music, speech, or verse. Rhythm, the most comprehensive, suggests the recurring flow of alternating elements: the rhythm of the seasons; the rhythms of life. "Rhythm was described by Schopenhauer as melody deprived of its pitch" (Edith Sitwell). Meter applies in poetry to any of various measured rhythmic patterns (elegiac meter) and in music to the combining of rhythmic pulses into measures of equal time value (duple meter). Cadence refers especially to the fall of the voice in speech (end a sentence with a cadence) and to balanced rhythmic flow, as in poetry (the cadence of the sea).