Standard Lemma guide

clerihew

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈklɛɹɨˌhjuː/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: klĕrʹĭ-hyo͞o'
  • General-American: /ˈklɛɹɪ̈ˌhju/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Alternative letter-case form of clerihew.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a witty satiric verse containing two rhymed couplets and mentioning a famous person

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • `The president is George W. Bush, Who is happy to sit on his tush, While sending his armies to fight, For anything he thinks is right' is a clerihew

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: verse, rhyme

History

Etymology

Named after English humourist and novelist Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), who invented the rhyme.

Across languages

Translations

10 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese: 克萊里休詩 /克莱里休诗 — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Dutch: clerihew — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Finnish: clerihew — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • German: Clerihew — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Hungarian: bökvers — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Japanese: クレリヒュー — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Japanese: 風刺四行詩 — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Japanese: 人物四行詩 — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Kannada: ಕ್ಲೇರಿಹ್ಯೂ (klērihyū) — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person
  • Polish: clerihew — rhyme of four lines, usually regarding a person