Rimes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Combinations of words that share the same ending sounds, typically used in poetry and song lyrics
2. Pairs of lines or verses that conclude with matching sounds to create rhythm
3. The repetition of similar final sounds in different phrases to enhance musicality and flow

Etymology: Rimes is simply the plural of "rime," but the noun behind it is a frost word before it is a word about verse. In Old English, "hrīm" meant hoar frost, the white crystalline coating left on grass and branches on cold mornings, and the same root gave Old Norse "hrím," Dutch "rijm" and modern Danish "rim," all still meaning frost. The English noun kept that sense for centuries, so a poet of the period writing about rime was writing about ice, not sound. The spelling "rime" in its verse-related senses is a later mix-up. The word for matching sounds at line ends came into Middle English as "rime," "rim," "ryme" and "rhyme," and over time the frost word and the verse word blurred together, so "rime" survives as a variant spelling of "rhyme." The plural here, "rimes," therefore carries the sense of matching word endings. The two words share no meaning in modern English, only a spelling history.

Synonyms: rhymes