Rhymes: English
From open-dictionary.com - the free dictionary.
| Table of contents |
English rhymes
Notes on rhymes
- Two words are rhymes if they are stressed on the same syllable, counting from the end of the words, and are pronounced identically from the vowel in their stressed syllable to the end.
- Wiktionary follows this strict definition of a rhyme. For example:
- best, request and underdressed are all rhymes, because they are all stressed on the final syllable and are pronounced identically from the vowel sound in that syllable to the end of the word.
- undid and liquid are not rhymes, as they are stressed on different syllables (the final and penultimate syllables, respectively).
Organization of rhymes
- Rhymes in Wiktionary are organized using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). See Wiktionary Appendix:IPA Examples for examples demonstrating the sound that each IPA symbol makes.
- To find rhymes for a word, determine which vowel, diphthong or triphthong is stressed in the word, find the sound in the table below, which gives examples of words containing each of the vowel sounds of English, and follow the appropriate link.
Guide to adding new rhymes
- If you wish to add a page of rhymes not already listed here, do so by following the links in one of the tables below and creating a suitable link if one is not already given. Note the following conventions:
- Words containing r are listed on a separate page from those not that don't contain that r, in order to distinguish between rhotic and non-rhotic accents. For example, pa and par are to be found on separate pages. There are links from each page to the other for the benefit speakers of non-rhotic accents, for whom the words in the one set are rhymes for the words in the other. Links to rhymes containing an r in or after the stressed syllable have this r bracketed, to show that it is not pronounced in non-rhotic accents. For example, par is found on the page for rhymes ending in -ɑː(r).
- In words ending in an unstressed syllable that sounds like "ee" or "i" (such as "happy", "pixie", "mini" and "coffee"), Wiktionary policy is to represent this vowel sound by the IPA symbol /i/ rather than the "short" /ɪ/ or "long" /iː/ (see the appropriate discussion in the beer parlour). In such words where the final syllable is stressed (such as "agree"), the final vowel sound is represented by /iː/.
- Similarly, in words ending in an unstressed syllable that sounds like "oo" (such as "into", "igloo" and "menu"), this vowel is represented by the IPA symbol /u/ rather than the "short" /ʊ/ or "long" /uː/. In such words where the final syllable is stressed (such as "canoe"), the final vowel sound is represented by /uː/.
- Links in the tables for each vowel sound are ordered by the consonant sound immediately after the stressed vowel sound, in the following alphabetical order, which reflects the typical spelling of words for each rhyme: <no consonant>, b, ch, d, f, g, j, k, l, m, n, ng, nk, p, qu, r, s, sf, sh, sk (etc), t, th (as in "think"), th (as in "that"), tr, v, w, x, y, z. Insert your link at the appropriate place in the table and provide an example rhyme.
Received Pronunciation
| Similar to... | Long | Short | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | may /eɪ/ | pap /æ/ | pa, par /ɑː/, /ɑː(r)/ | ||
| e | me /iː/ | pep /ɛ/ | pear /eə/ | ||
| i | my /aɪ/ | pip /ɪ/ | pier /ɪə(r)/ | ||
| o | mow /əʊ/ | pop /ɒ/ | paw, pore /ɔː/, /ɔː(r)/ | cow /aʊ/ | toy /ɔɪ/ |
| u | moo, mew /uː/, /juː/ | pup /ʌ/ | purr /ɜː/ | foot /ʊ/ | poor, pure /ʊə/, /jʊə/ |
General American pronunciation
- Note that the rhymes index above is structured by standard British pronunciation. Thus American and other dialects may need to consult multiple pages for words that rhyme.
- Indices distinguish between words containing an "r" sound and those that do not, so, for example, "pa" and "par" feature in separate lists.
- Because of regional variations in pronunciation, some indices will inevitably contain words that some speakers do not consider to be rhymes.
| Similar to... | Long | Short | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | may /e/ | pap /æ/ | ||||
| e | me /i/ from /iː/ /i/ from /ɪə/ | pep /ɛ/ from /ɛ/ | pear /ɛ(ə)r/ | hear /i(ə)r/ | ||
| i | my /aɪ/ | pip /ɪ/ | ||||
| o | mow /o/ | pop, paw /ɑ/ from /ɒ/ /ɑ/ from /ɑː/ /ɑ/ from /ɔː/ | pore /o(ə)r/ | cow /aʊ/ | toy /ɔɪ/ | |
| oo | noose /u/ | foot /ʊ/ | poor /ʊ(ə)r/ | |||
| u | muse /ju/ | pup /ʌ/ | pure /ju(ə)r/ | purr /ɝ/ | ||
