Timing vs. Rhythm — What's the Difference?

Timing is the tracking or planning of the spacing of events in time.

Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός, rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry"—Liddell and Scott 1996) generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions" (Anon. 1971, 2537).

The regulation of occurrence, pace, or coordination to achieve a desired effect, as in music, the theater, or athletics.

Movement or variation characterized by the regular recurrence or alternation of different quantities or conditions

The synchronization of the sparking of the plugs with the movement of the pistons in an internal-combustion engine.

The patterned, recurring alternations of contrasting elements of sound or speech.

An occurrence or event.

The patterning of musical sound, as by differences in the timing, duration, or stress of consecutive notes.

The regulation of the pace of e.g. an athletic race, the speed of an engine, the delivery of a joke, or the occurrence of a series of events.

A specific kind of such patterning

The time when something happens.

A group of instruments supplying the rhythm in a band.

(uncountable) The synchronization of the firing of the spark plugs in an internal combustion engine.

The pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in accentual verse or of long and short syllables in quantitative verse.

(countable) An instance of recording the time of something.

The similar but less formal sequence of sounds in prose.

Present participle of time

A specific kind of metrical pattern or flow

The time when something happens

The sense of temporal development created in a work of literature or a film by the arrangement of formal elements such as the length of scenes, the nature and amount of dialogue, or the repetition of motifs.

A regular or harmonious pattern created by lines, forms, and colors in painting, sculpture, and other visual arts.

The pattern of development produced in a literary or dramatic work by repetition of elements such as words, phrases, incidents, themes, images, and symbols.

Procedure or routine characterized by regularly recurring elements, activities, or factors

The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.

A specifically defined pattern of such variation.

A flow, repetition or regularity.

The tempo or speed of a beat, song or repetitive event.

The musical instruments which provide rhythm (mainly; not or less melody) in a musical ensemble.

A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.

Controlled repetition of a phrase, incident or other element as a stylistic figure in literature and other narrative arts; the effect it creates.

A person's natural feeling for rhythm.

In the widest sense, a dividing into short portions by a regular succession of motions, impulses, sounds, accents, etc., producing an agreeable effect, as in music poetry, the dance, or the like.

Movement in musical time, with periodical recurrence of accent; the measured beat or pulse which marks the character and expression of the music; symmetry of movement and accent.

A division of lines into short portions by a regular succession of arses and theses, or percussions and remissions of voice on words or syllables.

The harmonious flow of vocal sounds.

The basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music;

Recurring at regular intervals

An interval during which a recurring sequence of events occurs;

The arrangement of spoken words alternating stressed and unstressed elements;

Natural family planning in which ovulation is assumed to occur 14 days before the onset of a period (the fertile period would be assumed to extend from day 10 through day 18 of her cycle)