Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Correspondence of terminal sounds of words or of lines of verse.
  • noun A poem or verse having a regular correspondence of sounds, especially at the ends of lines.
  • noun Poetry or verse of this kind.
  • noun A word that corresponds with another in terminal sound, as behold and cold.
  • intransitive verb To form a rhyme.
  • intransitive verb To compose rhymes or verse.
  • intransitive verb To make use of rhymes in composing verse.
  • intransitive verb To put into rhyme or compose with rhymes.
  • intransitive verb To use (a word or words) as a rhyme.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun etc. See rime, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An expression of thought in numbers, measure, or verse; a composition in verse; a rhymed tale; poetry; harmony of language.
  • noun (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.
  • noun Verses, usually two, having this correspondence with each other; a couplet; a poem containing rhymes.
  • noun A word answering in sound to another word.
  • noun See under Female.
  • noun See under Male.
  • noun sound or sense.
  • noun (Pros.) a stanza of seven decasyllabic verses, of which the first and third, the second, fourth, and fifth, and the sixth and seventh rhyme.
  • intransitive verb To make rhymes, or verses.
  • intransitive verb To accord in rhyme or sound.
  • transitive verb To put into rhyme.
  • transitive verb To influence by rhyme.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete Number.
  • noun countable, uncountable Rhyming verse (poetic form)
  • noun A thought expressed in verse; a verse; a poem; a tale told in verse.
  • noun countable A word that rhymes with another.
  • noun uncountable Rhyming: sameness of sound of part of some words.
  • noun countable, uncountable Rhyming verse (poetic form).
  • noun linguistics rime
  • verb transitive, obsolete To number; count; reckon.
  • verb transitive To compose or treat in verse; versify.
  • verb transitive, followed by with Of a word, to be pronounced identically with another from the vowel in its stressed syllable to the end.
  • verb reciprocal Of two or more words, to be pronounced identically from the vowel in the stressed syllable of each to the end of each.
  • verb transitive To put words together so that they rhyme.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be similar in sound, especially with respect to the last syllable
  • noun correspondence in the sounds of two or more lines (especially final sounds)
  • noun a piece of poetry
  • verb compose rhymes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by rhythm) of Middle English rime, from Old French, of Germanic origin; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • 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).

    April 1, 2008

  • It's gotta be "ucket." As in, "There once was a man from Nantucket..."

    April 1, 2008

  • Heehee. Yarb, is this along the lines of what you're looking for?

    April 1, 2008

  • No, yarb, but I suspect the most uncommon word-end-sound is probably '-ongry'!

    April 1, 2008

  • Thanks rt. That's what I mean - phonograms - but someone must have some numbers on this!

    April 1, 2008

  • 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.

    April 1, 2008

  • 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'.

    September 8, 2009