Rhymes:English
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, but differ in sound immediately before that vowel.
- 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).
- Note, however, that some entries list partial rhymes, meaning words that end in the same pronunciation but are stressed on different syllables, counting from the end. Words in these sections are words that have no true rhymes and do not appear on other pages.
Organization of rhymes
Rhymes in Wiktionary are organized using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). See the English pronunciation key for examples demonstrating the sound that each IPA symbol represents.
To find rhymes for a word, either:
- 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. This will take you to a page for rhymes stressed on the final syllable, while rhymes for words stressed on an earlier syllable can be found by following the links ending in ellipses in the table.
- Find the word's entry in Wiktionary, which may have a link to the appropriate Rhymes page.
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 /ɹ/ are listed on a separate page from those that do not contain that /ɹ/, 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 of 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 /ɹ/ in or after the stressed syllable have this /ɹ/ 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(ɹ)/.
- The symbol /i/ is used in unstressed syllables to represent both /iː/ and /ɪ/ (as in the final syllable of happy and coffee and the second syllable of mediate). Speakers may use any one of these three sounds, depending on dialect. When the sound is in a stressed sylable, it is represented by /iː/. See happy tensing.
- Similarly, in words ending in an unstressed /u/ (the oo sound at the ends of into, igloo and menu), this vowel is represented by the IPA symbol /u/ rather than the short /ʊ/ or long /uː/. When the sound is in a stressed sylable, it 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 (/tʃ/, as in church), ch (/x/, as in Scottish loch), d, f, g, j (/dʒ/, as in judge), k, l, m, n, ng (/ŋ/, as in ring), nk (/ŋk/, as in rink), p, qu (/kw/ as in quick), r, s, sf, sh (/ʃ/ as in shape), zh (/ʒ/ as in vision and treasure), sk, etc, t, th (/θ/, as in thought), th (/ð/, as in that), tr, v, w, x (/ks/, as in box), y (/j/, as in yes), z. Insert your link at the appropriate place in the table and provide an example rhyme.
Accents and dialects
Attempting to represent all accents and dialects of all varieties of English in the rhymes table would make them impossible to manage and of little value to a speaker of just one type of English. The rhymes are therefore organised by standard UK pronunciation alone (based on Received Pronunciation: see the table below). Non-rhotic British English has been chosen because it has fewer phonological mergers than some other varieties of English, such as American English, making it more likely that the rhymes on any given page are rhymes for most English speakers.
Because of national and regional variations in pronunciation, some indices will inevitably contain words that some speakers do not consider to be rhymes.
In most cases, rhymes in American English can be located using the guide under § General American pronunciation below. Occasionally, however, greater differences in pronunciation mean that rhymes appear in separate indices for different varieties of English; for example, vase rhymes with face in American English but with Mars in British English, and so this word appears in two indices, where it is labelled "US pronunciation" and "UK pronunciation" respectively. These labels indicate pronunciations used in one country but not the other and typically, but not necessarily, refer to General American and Received Pronunciation respectively. In a few rare cases, the same has been done for pronunciation differences in other varieties of English, such as Canadian and Australian.
Some anglicised rhymes of foreign origin are labelled "anglicised pronunciation". Unless otherwise indicated, these include both UK and US pronunciations.
See also Regional accents of English
Received Pronunciation
| Similar to... |
Long | Short | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | may /eɪ/ |
pap /æ/ |
pa, par /ɑː/ |
pair, yeah /ɛə/, | |
| e | me /iː/ |
pep /ɛ/ |
peer /ɪə/ | ||
| i | my /aɪ/ |
pip /ɪ/ |
mire /aɪə/ | ||
| o | mow /əʊ/ |
pop /ɒ/ |
paw, pore /ɔː/ |
cow /aʊ/ |
toy /ɔɪ/ |
| u | moo, mew /uː/, /juː/ |
pup /ʌ/ |
purr /ɜː/ |
put /ʊ/ |
poor, pure /ʊə/, /jʊə/ |
General American pronunciation
The rhymes index above is structured by standard British pronunciation, so 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.
| Similar to... |
Long | Short | Followed by /r/ | Other | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | may /e/ or /eɪ/ |
pap /æ/ |
pair /ɛ(ə)ɹ/ |
par /ɑɹ/ |
pa /ɑ/ |
paw /ɔ/ | |
| e | me /i/ from /iː/ |
pep /ɛ/ from /ɛ/ |
peer /ɪ(ə)ɹ/ | ||||
| i | my /aɪ/ |
pip /ɪ/ |
mire /aɪ(ə)ɹ/ | ||||
| o | mow /oʊ/ |
pop /ɑ/ from /ɒ/ /ɑ/ from /ɑː/ |
pore /o(ə)ɹ/ |
cow /aʊ/ |
toy /ɔɪ/ | ||
| oo | noose /u/ |
foot /ʊ/ |
poor /ʊ(ə)ɹ/ | ||||
| u | muse /ju/ |
pup /ʌ/ |
pure /ju(ə)ɹ/ |
purr /ɜːɹ/ | |||