When I asked readers what their votes were for hard words to spell in English, one answer kept popping up over and over. “I can never spell RHYTHM correctly!” lamented one woman.
Others chimed in, agreeing: “Right — I forget where each ‘H’ goes, and it’s definitely weird that the only vowel is that single ‘Y’ in the middle.”
Others concurred: “I’ve spelled rhythm wrong a million times: rithm, rhytm, rythm, rhthym, rithym, rhythme, rithum, rhythum, rhythmn… the list goes on!”
Ah yes, RHYTHM: a noun defined as: a regular pattern of sounds, music, movement, or actions. The easiest synonym of “rhythm” is “beat.” For example, “BOOM, bum, BOOM, bum” is a rhythm.
Now, upon seeing the flood of people having trouble spelling “rhythm,” this English teacher-artist vowed at once to think up and draw a funny, memorable way to never forget the spelling of “rhythm” again. Ready? Here goes.

How to Spell Rhythm
Here’s my trick to learn how to spell rhythm, and it has two parts, illustrated in my hand-drawn cartoon above. First, remember this phrase: “Radio Has Your Two Hips Moving.” The first letter of each word in that sentence come together to correctly write RHYTHM, and your spelling dilemma is solved. Ta Da!
The next part of the trick is to look at how the letter “H” appears twice in “rhythm” — one as the second letter of the word, and the other as the second to last letter. What does this remind you of? Ah yes — two HIPS (mirroring the “H” on either side, hip width apart) moving in time to the beat, or rHytHm, of the music! To help you remember this, I drew an “H” on each hip of the dancing woman’s clothes in my illustration, above.

Another Rhythm Spelling Trick
In case you want another way to remember the spelling of rhythm, here’s another — but this time, it’s totally silly and random. Check out my illustration above, which guides you to remember the letter order of the word “rhythm” via the sentence: “Ray Has Your Two Hot Muffins.”
Hmm… maybe I should stick to sentences that actually have something to do with the definition of the word… like the first mnemonic device, eh? Now I’m just hungry for some fluffy, fresh dessert muffins!
VIDEO: Spell Rhythm
Spelling Rhythm, in Sum
So there you have it: now you have three separate tricks for correctly answering, every time someone asks the question: “How do you spell rhythm?” (Do you also now have the Gloria Estefan song, “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” stuck in your head?)
I hope these educational cartoon illustrations and this explanation have been useful, and I eagerly await other requests you have for English or life lessons you’d like me to draw for you, now that I’ve just published a piece on, “Hear, hear.” Feel free to comment, below!
Want more? Peruse my illustrated lesson on “Hair or Hairs?”

The author and artist, Lillie Marshall, is a National Board Certified Teacher of English who has been a public school educator since 2003, and an experienced Reiki practitioner since 2018. All art on this site is original and hand-drawn by Lillie. She launched DrawingsOf.com Educational Cartoons in 2020, building upon the success of her other sites, AroundTheWorldL.com (established 2009), TeachingTraveling.com (founded 2010), and ReikiColors.com. Subscribe to Lillie’s monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media to stay connected!