limerick

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 17, 2025 is: limerick \LIM-uh-rik\ noun A limerick is a humorous rhyming poem of five lines. // My limerick received a prize for the funniest poem at the open mic night. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/limerick) Examples: "… the play is silly, purposefully stupid and tough for even [Cole] Escola to categorize: 'If I were to call it a farce or a screwball comedy, I feel like actual scholars of comedy would be like, "There's not a single door slam, you idiot!" I would call it … a dirty limerick,' they joked to Variety earlier this fall." — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 25 Nov. 2024 Did you know? A limerick is a short, humorous (and frequently [bawdy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bawdy)) five-line poem with a rhyme scheme of aabba. While the origins of this type of verse are unknown, some believe that the poem owes its name to a group of poets from [Limerick](https://www.britannica.com/place/Limerick-Ireland), a port city in west-central Ireland, who wrote such verses. Others point to a [parlor game](https://bit.ly/4gJ3Cke) in which players sang the chorus of an old soldiers' song with the phrase "will you come up to Limerick?" and then added impromptu verses. Regardless, a limerick’s characteristic rhythm comes from its uses of [anapests](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anapest), metrical feet consisting of two short syllables followed by one long syllable or two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (as in "unaware"). To wit: "There once was a song from old [Éire](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eire) / Sung by the soldiers living there, / 'Will You Come Up to Limerick?' / Quite possibly did the trick / In naming the limericks we share."