How to write a limerick

A practical guide to the form, the rhythm, and the My Limericks tools you can use to actually write one.

What is a limerick?

A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme, a distinctive bouncing rhythm, and — by long convention — a humorous or absurd subject. It's the most recognizable short form in English-language poetry, and one of the easiest to start writing.

The structure has three things going on at once:

• Line lengths. Lines 1, 2, and 5 are longer; lines 3 and 4 are shorter and rhyme with each other.
• Rhyme scheme: AABBA. Lines 1, 2, and 5 all rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other but not with the A lines.
• Rhythm. A repeating "da-da-DUM" pattern (or "da-DUM-da" in the amphibrachic variant — more on this below) that gives limericks their galloping, sing-song feel.

The classic example, scanned out:

That's the whole game. The rest of this page is about doing it well — picking words that fit the rhythm, finding rhymes, and matching the form to your skill level and ambition.

Getting started

If you've never written a limerick before, the fastest path is:

1. On the My Limericks page, pick a Limerick type. Start with Relaxed — it allows a wider syllable range and forgives natural English speech rhythms. You can always tighten to Classic later.
2. Write line 1. It should set up the joke — usually a person, place, or thing. The line-input field will show a sample placeholder (e.g., "There ONCE was a MAN from Nan-TUC-ket") and count syllables as you type. A green check means you're in range.
3. Decide what the A-rhyme is: the last word of line 1. That word controls lines 2 and 5. Click into one of the rhyme helper boxes, type that word, and press Enter. You'll get a list of words that rhyme.
4. Write line 2 ending in a word from the rhyme list. Same rhythm and syllable count as line 1.
5. Write lines 3 and 4. These are shorter — about two-thirds the length of the long lines — and they rhyme with each other but not with lines 1, 2, 5. Pick a new rhyme pair.
6. Write line 5 — the punchline. It rhymes with lines 1 and 2, and traditionally pays off the setup with a twist or wordplay.
7. Save. Your limerick is now in your personal list and can be entered into a tournament.

A common pitfall: writing the limerick start-to-finish and getting stuck on line 5 because nothing rhymes with your line-1 word. A trick used by working limerick writers is to write line 5 first — find a clever punchline, then work backward to set it up.

The four types

Legends of Limerick supports four type variants. The difference between them is how strict the rhythm and syllable count rules are.

Classic

The textbook form. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have exactly 9 syllables arranged as three anapests (da-da-DUM da-da-DUM da-da-DUM). Lines 3 and 4 have exactly 6 syllables (da-da-DUM da-da-DUM). Use this when you want to demonstrate the form as a textbook would teach it. It's also the strictest, and so often the hardest: English doesn't naturally fall into pure anapests, and most published "classic" limericks actually use small rhythm substitutions (see Meter and rhythm below).

Relaxed

The friendliest form for beginners. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have 7 to 10 syllables; lines 3 and 4 have 5 to 7 syllables. No fixed rhythm pattern — the syllable range absorbs the natural English tendency to open lines with an iambic foot (da-DUM) or end them with an extra unstressed syllable. If your limerick is funny but wouldn't pass Classic's strict 9-syllable test, Relaxed is the type for it.

Extended

For more elaborate setups. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have 11 or 12 syllables; lines 3 and 4 stay short at 5 or 6. The extra room on the long lines lets you pack in more story or wordplay at the cost of a less punchy rhythm. Use sparingly — most great limericks are short and tight.

Amphibrach

The rhythmic alternative to Classic. Same syllable counts (9/9/6/6/9) but the foot is an amphibrach (da-DUM-da: unstressed, STRESSED, unstressed) instead of an anapest. The Nantucket limerick at the top of this page is the canonical amphibrachic example — the stress falls in the middle of each foot, giving the line a "skip" feel rather than a "gallop."

Meter and rhythm

The technical name for limerick rhythm is anapestic trimeter on the long lines (three anapests per line) and anapestic dimeter on the short lines (two anapests). Some limericks use amphibrachs instead — same structure, different foot. Both are recognized as valid limerick meters.

Anapest vs amphibrach

An anapest is a three-syllable foot with the stress on the last syllable:

An amphibrach is a three-syllable foot with the stress in the middle:

Three of either kind, repeated, gives you a 9-syllable line. Two of either kind gives you 6.

Common substitutions

Real English limericks almost never use the strict form for every foot. Two natural substitutions are so common that they're usually treated as part of the form rather than violations of it:

• Iambic opening. Replacing the first anapest (da-da-DUM) with an iamb (da-DUM) saves one syllable and feels natural at the start of a line. Edward Lear's limericks ("There WAS an Old MAN with a BEARD…") almost universally open this way. It produces 8 syllables instead of 9.
• Feminine ending. Adding an extra unstressed syllable at the end of the line ("Nan-TUC-ket" instead of just "Nan-TUC") creates a "feminine" rhyme and lets you rhyme on multi-syllable words. Produces 10 syllables instead of 9.

If you find your limerick keeps coming out at 8 or 10 syllables instead of 9, you're probably using one of these substitutions naturally. Switching to the Relaxed type accepts both without complaint.

Rhyme tips and the rhyme helpers

Below the line inputs on the My Limericks page, you'll see four identical Rhyme Helper boxes. Type a word, press Enter, and each box shows you:

• Rhymes — words that rhyme with what you typed (uses the Datamuse rhyming dictionary).
• Near rhymes — words that almost rhyme; useful when the perfect-rhyme list is thin or full of unusable words.
• Synonyms — words that mean roughly the same thing. Not rhymes themselves — they're stepping stones to a better rhyming word (see strategy below).
• The definition of the word you typed, so you can confirm you're rhyming on the right sense of the word.

Why four boxes?

Because the first word you try almost never has the rhymes you want. Suppose you want a line to end on a word meaning "scream." You type scream into box 1 and get cream, dream, gleam, seem, team, beam… — fine rhymes, but maybe none of them fit the story.

The four boxes let you work in parallel:

1. Box 1: your first try (scream).
2. Box 2: a synonym (shout) — rhymes with doubt, route, pout, scout…
3. Box 3: another synonym (yell) — rhymes with bell, fell, smell, swell…
4. Box 4: a third synonym (cry) — rhymes with sky, pie, fly, lie, by…

Now you've got four rhyme families to pick from, and you'll usually find one that suggests a punchline. The Synonyms list inside any box is the shortcut for finding new words to try in the other boxes — type a word, see synonyms, copy a synonym to a different box and search again.

Rhyming tricks worth knowing

• Multi-syllable rhymes are funnier than single-syllable rhymes. "Nantucket / bucket" is more memorable than "town / brown" because the rhyme covers two whole syllables, not one. Reach for multi-syllable endings when you can.
• Rhyme on the last stressed syllable, not the last syllable. "Bucket" and "ticket" rhyme because both stress the same syllable (BUCK-et / TICK-et) — not because the final et sound matches.
• Near rhymes are fine if they're confident. "Truck" and "duck" are perfect rhymes; "truck" and "stuck" are perfect rhymes; "truck" and "trunk" is a near rhyme that lands as long as the rest of the line earns it.
• Don't force the rhyme. If you find yourself writing "I went to the store / It was a bore / and I sat on the floor" just because all the words rhyme, scrap it and try a different ending. The rhyme should feel inevitable in retrospect, not strained in the moment.

A short history of the limerick

The limerick as a five-line AABBA poem with anapestic rhythm crystallized in early 19th-century England, but the form's ingredients are older. "Hickory Dickory Dock" and several Mother Goose verses from the 18th century use the same rhythm and rhyme scheme. The name's origin is debated: one popular theory traces it to a pub-song refrain — "Will you come up to Limerick?" — that Irish soldiers brought home from continental service in the late 18th century. Historians remain unconvinced, but the name stuck.

The form's modern popularity owes everything to Edward Lear, an English writer and illustrator whose 1846 collection A Book of Nonsense contained more than a hundred limericks and made the form famous. Lear's limericks always opened with a person from a place ("There was an Old Man of…", "There was a Young Lady of…") and used the first and fifth lines to rhyme on the same word — a structural quirk most modern limericks have dropped in favor of two different A-rhymes.

In the 20th century the form developed two parallel traditions: a clean family-friendly tradition (children's poetry, advertising jingles, light verse magazines) and a bawdy one (the Nantucket limerick is the polite tip of a much larger iceberg). Both are alive and well; Legends of Limerick supports both, with content ratings to keep them sorted.

What's stayed constant for two hundred years: the form is short, the rhythm is bouncy, the rhyme is satisfying, and the joke lands on line 5.