[ 'rɪδ(ə)m ]
■ noun
1》 a strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound.
↘the systematic arrangement of musical sounds, according to duration and periodical stress.
↘a type of pattern formed by this.
↘a person's natural feeling for musical ~.
2》 the measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose as determined by the length of and stress on syllables.
3》 a regularly recurring sequence of events or actions: the ~s of the tides.
Derivatives
~less adjective
Origin
C16 (also orig. in the sense 'rhyme'): from Fr. ~e , or via L. from Gk rhuthmos (rel. to rhein 'to flow').