rhyme or reason
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
There is not rhyme or reason to that road, and just occasionally, it is blissfully clear.
At times, and briefly, they had seemed to be in sympathy, then without rhyme or reason his mood would change, the warmth, the closeness would vanish and he'd be deliberately cruel and wounding …
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29).
Common questions
What does “rhyme or reason” mean?
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
Is “rhyme or reason” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.