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Abstract The high-pressure and high-temperature structural, mechanical, and dinamical stability of rhodium has been investigated via synchrotron X-ray diffraction using a resistively heated diamond anvil cell and density functional theory. The isothermal compression data have been fitted with a Rydberg-Vinet equation of state (EoS) with best-fitting parameters $$V_0$$ V 0 =55.046(16) Å $$^3$$ 3 , $$K_0$$ K 0 = 251(3) GPa, and $$K'_0$$ K 0 ′ = 5.7(2). The thermal equation of state has been determined based upon the data collected following four different isotherms and has been fitted to a Holland and Powell thermal equation-of-state model with $$\alpha _0=$$ α 0 = 3.36(7)x10 $$^{-5}$$ - 5 K $$^{-1}$$ - 1 . The measured equation of state and structural parameters have been compared to the results of ab initio simulations. The agreement between theory and experiments is generally quite good. The present results solve controversies between previous studies which reported values of the bulk modulus from 240 to 300 GPa.