rime
/ɹaɪm/noun, verb
rime is spelled R-I-M-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,954th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “rhyme vs rime” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, rime means “Archaic in the form rimes: originally, any frozen dew forming a white deposit on exposed surfaces; hoar frost (sense 1)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rime is rimes.
How many letters and syllables are in rime?
| Letters | 4: R-I-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 52,954th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is rime?
Rime appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,954th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce rime?
- US /ɹaɪm/
Rime has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rhyme.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-rime.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with rime
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: rhyme (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: rhyme.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with rime?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rime from its last stressed vowel (/aɪm/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: emir, mire, reim.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of rime
- rimes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- riming participle, present
- rimed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does rime mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Archaic in the form rimes: originally, any frozen dew forming a white deposit on exposed surfaces; hoar frost (sense 1).
- 2
A film or slimy coating.
- 3
White hair as an indication of old age.
- 4
Ice formed by the rapid freezing of cold water droplets of fog on to a cold surface.
- 5
A coating or sheet of ice so formed.
- 6
UKA cold fog or mist.
- 7
archaicArchaic spelling of rhyme (“word that rhymes with another”).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1797–1798.
- 8
The second part of a syllable, from the vowel on (as opposed to the onset).
- 9
obsoleteA narrow aperture or opening; a chink, a crack, a fissure; a rent, a rip.
verb
- 1
To cover (something) with rime (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1 or etymology 1, noun sense 3.1) or (loosely) hoar frost.
- 2
To cover (something) with a thin coating or film; to coat.
- 3
Sometimes followed by up: of a thing: to become covered with rime or (loosely) hoar frost.
- 4
To enlarge (a hole), especially using a tool such as a reamer.
- 5
To remove debris from inside (something, such as a freshly bored hole or a pipe) using a tool.
- 6
archaicFollowed by up: to count (something); to number, to reckon.
- 7
IrelandrareTo dye (wool or yarn) reddish-brown by boiling or soaking in water with alder twigs.
- 8
obsoleterareFollowed by into: to probe, to pry.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Rime in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does rime come from?
The noun is derived from Middle English rim, rime, rym, ryme (“hoar frost; rime”), from Old English hrīm (“frost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrīm (“rime; hoar frost”), from Proto-Germanic *hrīmą (North Germanic), *hrīmaz, *hrīmô (“rime; hoar frost”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to graze, touch; to streak”). The verb is derived from the noun. (The Old English equivalent, which did not survive into modern English, was behrīman.)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).