Meaning & use
biorhythm
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebiology
A natural repeated cycle in a living thing, such as the daily sleep-wake pattern.
Grammar: Countable: you can talk about one biorhythm or several biorhythms. It is often used in the plural.
Patterns
- a biorhythm controls something
- disrupt someone's biorhythms
- the body's biorhythms
Jet lag happens because travel across time zones disrupts your biorhythms.
Scientists study biorhythms to understand why some people wake up early and others late.
nouncountabledisapproving
One of three supposed cycles (physical, emotional, mental) said to affect how you feel and perform.
Grammar: Countable and usually plural in this sense: people talk about their biorhythms being high or low.
Patterns
- your biorhythms are high/low
- check your biorhythms
- believe in biorhythms
Some websites claim to calculate your biorhythms from your date of birth.
She checks her biorhythms before making big decisions, though her friends think it is nonsense.
Word forms
| plural | biorhythms |
|---|
Common combinations
- disrupt biorhythms
- Working night shifts can disrupt your biorhythms.
- natural biorhythm
- The body's natural biorhythm tells you when to sleep.
- daily biorhythm
- Light helps set the daily biorhythm in most animals.
- biological rhythm
- A biological rhythm such as breathing continues without conscious control.
Synonyms and how they differ
- biological clock
- This usually refers specifically to the internal system that controls daily cycles; biorhythm is a broader term for any repeating biological cycle.
- circadian rhythm
- This is the technical term for the roughly 24-hour cycle; biorhythm can refer to other cycles too, and is also used for the pseudoscientific theory.
Word family
- biorhythmic adjective
- Relating to biorhythms, as in biorhythmic cycles.
- rhythm noun
- A regular repeated pattern, especially in music or movement.
Commonly confused: biorhythm or bio-rhythm?
biorhythm vs bio-rhythm
This hyphenated spelling is sometimes seen, but the standard spelling is one word: biorhythm.
Practice
Which sentence uses biorhythm correctly?
Choose one answer.
Biorhythm refers to a natural body cycle, so travel across time zones upsetting it makes sense. Option 0 is wrong because a broken bone needs a cast, not a biorhythm. Option 2 confuses biorhythm with rhythm in music. Option 3 wrongly uses biorhythm for business success.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “biorhythm”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.