Home › Glossary › Letter R

rime

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

White frost or frozen dew forming crystalline deposits on surfaces; hoarfrost; also an archaic or poetic spelling of "rhyme," creating intentional archaism.

Detailed Definition
As frost, “rime” evokes cold beauty; as rhyme, poetic craft. In poetry, both appear: rime on branches, verses in rime. The duality enriches metaphor—frost’s fragility mirroring art’s precision. Poets use it to explore transience and structure, where natural and verbal patterns intersect, reinforcing themes of artifice, seasonality, and ephemeral beauty.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The rime clung to the windowpane like ghostly lace,” in a winter lyric; In Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the archaic spelling “rime” denotes frost, not rhyme: “And now there came both mist and snow, / And it grew wondrous cold: / And ice, mast-high, came floating by, / As green as emerald... / And through the drifts the snowy clifts / Did send a dismal sheen: / Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken— / The ice was all between... / The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around: / It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, / Like noises in a swound!... / And every tongue, through utter drought, / Was withered at the root; / We could not speak, no more than if / We had been choked with soot... / Ah! well a-day! what evil looks / Had I from old and young! / Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung... / The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, / The furrow followed free; / We were the first that ever burst / Into that silent sea... / Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, / ’Twas sad as sad could be; / And we did speak only to break / The silence of the sea!... / All in a hot and copper sky, / The bloody Sun, at noon, / Right up above the mast did stand, / No bigger than the Moon... / Day after day, day after day, / We stuck, nor breath nor motion; / As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean... / Water, water, every where, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink... / The very deep did rot: O Christ! / That ever this should be! / Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs / Upon the slimy sea... / About, about, in reel and rout / The death-fires danced at night; / The water, like a witch’s oils, / Burnt green, and blue and white... / And some in dreams assured were / Of the Spirit that plagued us so; / Nine fathom deep he had followed us / From the land of mist and snow... / And every tongue, through utter drought, / Was withered at the root; / We could not speak, no more than if / We had been choked with soot... / Ah! well a-day! what evil looks / Had I from old and young! / Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung”; “The rime of age frosts the mirror of youth”; “Beneath the rime, the river still flows”; The poet’s heart bore rime from winter’s long grief.
Additional Notes
“Rime” as frost evokes stark, crystalline winter imagery in Romantic or elegiac verse; as an archaic spelling of “rhyme,” it appears in older poetic treatises, reminding readers of the term’s dual sensory and structural heritage.
Other Meanings of “rime”
Also Known As
frost hoarfrost rhyme
Skip to main content