Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Correspondence of terminal sounds of words or of lines of verse.
- n. A poem or verse having a regular correspondence of sounds, especially at the ends of lines.
- n. Poetry or verse of this kind.
- n. A word that corresponds with another in terminal sound, as behold and cold.
- v. To form a rhyme.
- v. To compose rhymes or verse.
- v. To make use of rhymes in composing verse.
- v. To put into rhyme or compose with rhymes.
- v. To use (a word or words) as a rhyme.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. etc. See rime, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete Number.
- n. countable, uncountable Rhyming verse (poetic form)
- n. A thought expressed in verse; a verse; a poem; a tale told in verse.
- n. countable A word that rhymes with another.
- n. uncountable Rhyming: sameness of sound of part of some words.
- n. countable, uncountable Rhyming verse (poetic form).
- n. linguistics rime
- v. transitive, obsolete To number; count; reckon.
- v. transitive To compose or treat in verse; versify.
- v. transitive, followed by with Of a word, to be pronounced identically with another from the vowel in its stressed syllable to the end.
- v. reciprocal Of two or more words, to be pronounced identically from the vowel in the stressed syllable of each to the end of each.
- v. transitive To put words together so that they rhyme.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An expression of thought in numbers, measure, or verse; a composition in verse; a rhymed tale; poetry; harmony of language.
- n. (Pros.) Correspondence of sound in the terminating words or syllables of two or more verses, one succeeding another immediately or at no great distance. The words or syllables so used must not begin with the same consonant, or if one begins with a vowel the other must begin with a consonant. The vowel sounds and accents must be the same, as also the sounds of the final consonants if there be any.
- n. Verses, usually two, having this correspondence with each other; a couplet; a poem containing rhymes.
- n. A word answering in sound to another word.
- v. To make rhymes, or verses.
- v. To accord in rhyme or sound.
- v. To put into rhyme.
- v. To influence by rhyme.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be similar in sound, especially with respect to the last syllable
- n. correspondence in the sounds of two or more lines (especially final sounds)
- n. a piece of poetry
- v. compose rhymes
Etymologies
- Alteration (influenced by rhythm) of Middle English rime, from Old French, of Germanic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Verse without rhyme, is a body without a soul, (for the chief life consisteth in the rhyme) or a bell without a clapper; which, in strictness, is no bell, as being neither of use nor delight.”
“Why, for instance, Riordan has his characters speak in rhyme is never satisfactorily revealed.”
The Washington Post: Solas Nua's first musical, the loopy 'Improbable Frequency'
“I appreciate the implication that these small couplets are the only inoculation against certain death that kids have in their defensive arsenal -- and that the rhyme is a lesson hard-learned, acquired from the corpses of generations.”
“For example, Crambo is of extraordinary use to good rhyming, and rhyming is what I have ever accounted the very essential of a good poet: And in that notion I am not singular; for the aforesaid Sir Philip Sidney has declared, That the chief life of modern versifying, consisteth in the like sounding of words, which we call rhyme, which is an authority, either without exception, or above any reply.”
“Shangil Tobaya "mean" flip a brick, "and the popular rhyme translates as" flip a brick, you will find gold. ”
“I therefore look forward allready to Spring, And if that invalluable Lady named Hope had not allready been throng'd and pesterd, nay allmost suffocated with addresses and Sonnets I would talk over my feelings in rhyme to her.”
“I find a rhyme is rather lonely without a picture.”
“As for writing poetry, I ask my poor students to experiment with a variety of poetic techniques for creating music with words, and that includes writing in rhyme and meter.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Interview with Dashka Slater, part 2
“I think the best thing for me about this catchy rhyme is that now when I get frustrated at airports (which always happens) I can sing and everything will at least seem all right for those few seconds!”
“I was also told (over and over) that I should not be writing my stories in rhyme, because no one was going to be interested in those subjects in rhyme.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » INTERVIEW: Verla Kay, Part 1
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rhyme’.
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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Poetry Terms
April is National Poetry Month. Add your favorite poetry terms to this new list!
alliteration, anapest, alexandrine, caesura, assonance, ballad, blank verse, iamb, conceit, couplet, consonance, dactyl and 30 more...
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What time is it?
Words known for filling in the blank in the phrase "It's _____ time!"
clobbering, Howdy Doody, party, Miller, about, crunch, hammer, quitting, peanut butter jelly, high, dinner, only available fo... and 7 more...
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Childhood
Hula-Hoop, fairies, twirl, twinkle, glitter, candyland, firefly, June bug, wonderland, Alice-in-Wonderland, bedtime stories, spelling bee and 27 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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Why We Curse: WTF?
This list collects the magnificent collection of vocabulary of the article "What the F***? Why We Curse," by Steven Pinker, in The New Republic (Oct. 2007). I think I'm more impressed with the coll...
curse, language, earthy, ancient, unthinkable, thinkable, emotional, rhyme, meter, alliteration, pleasure, metaphor and 196 more...
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practice 2
100 words
momentous, domicile, adroit, ingenious, dexterous, genius, brevity, decorum, propriety, dignity, err, blunder and 91 more...
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NTB
chaos, Sagittarius, aether, magic, jester, fool, random, delirium, fire, life, cosmic, riddle and 120 more...
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fitting words
a list of words from the indo european root ar- and variations : to fit together
ambry, rede, coarctate, anarthrous, artiodactyl, exordium, harmony, army, armoire, arm, armada, armadillo and 349 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, R
retinol, rectory, rhubarb, rancor, recension, rood, redivivus, roborate, redound, ripsnorting, ragtag, recruit and 250 more...
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eloise's Words
embrace, perfect, imagine, dance, water, color, echo, hollow, sorrow, beauty, impossible, violet and 438 more...
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Christian Music
all words that have sth to do with Christian Music of all times...
melody, hymn, worship, celebrate, psalm, david, choir, praise, christian, music, service, church and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rhyme.

bilby
My rhymes no longer shall stand arrayed
Like Prussian soldiers on parade
That march,
Stiff as starch,
Foot to foot,
Boot to boot,
Blade to blade,
Button to button,
Cheeks and chops and chins like mutton.
- Robert Graves, 'Free Verse'. Sep 8, 2009
reesetee I saw this article cited in several places, but I think it's just for monosyllabic words: Fry, Edward. "The Most Common Phonograms." The Reading Teacher, Vol. 51, No. 7, April, 1998. Also, p. 33 of this title on Google Books has a shorter frequency chart based on Fry. Apr 1, 2008
yarb Thanks rt. That's what I mean - phonograms - but someone must have some numbers on this! Apr 1, 2008
gangerh No, yarb, but I suspect the most uncommon word-end-sound is probably '-ongry'! Apr 1, 2008
reesetee Heehee. Yarb, is this along the lines of what you're looking for? Apr 1, 2008
john It's gotta be "ucket." As in, "There once was a man from Nantucket..." Apr 1, 2008
yarb Does anyone know what the most common rhyme in Engish is? I.e. which word-end-sound (there must be a technical term) ends most words?
(Excluding suffix-style endings like "-ation" and "-ology). Apr 1, 2008