In some online rhyming dictionaries you can check a box to include these kinds of almost-rhymes in your search results. Same vowel, similar consonant: “rude” and “loot” are oblique rhymes. They also sound quite alike because the consonants d and t sound very similar to each other. These two aren’t quite the same one ends in -ood and the other ends in -oot, but they do share that -oo vowel sound, so they’re still linked. Words connected by oblique rhyme share the same vowel sound but have slightly different consonant sounds after them. One advantage of owning an actual printed rhyming dictionary is that you can flip through all of the long “o” sounds (all the -oo endings) and find a rich assortment of words that don’t quite rhyme… but come close enough to still be satisfying to you and your listeners. So rhyming dictionaries are basically organized into lists of words that’re linked by true rhyme. All words ending with an -ood sound–for example–are true rhymes to one another. With true rhyme, the two rhyming words each start off differently, but they end in the same vowel sound and the same consonant sound. Likewise, you’ll find “rude” and friends in the “-ood” section. Each section is labeled phonetically: in the “-oot” section you’ll find both b oot and s uit. In the English language (and in a rhyming dictionary), you’ll find plenty of words that have identical sounds–yet they’re not necessarily spelled the same way:ĭifferent spellings there, but if you speak “rude”, “glued”, and “brewed” out loud you’ll hear very obviously that they’ve all got that same “-ood” sound at the end.Īnyway, since differently-spelled words often rhyme, a printed rhyming dictionary is organized by sound, not spelling. To reach these deeper layers of rhyme, though, it helps to understand how a rhyming dictionary works. As we’ll see in a minute, there are lesser-known rhyming techniques you can take advantage of. This is the kind of rhyme that most people think of when you talk about rhyming. True rhyme is a kind of echo: a sound at the end of a word is repeated a short time after by another word. That’s what this article is about: digging deeper. You might also decide that none of the choices quite fit and in that case you can always dig deeper. You’ll look over a list of words–some will excite you others will leave you cold–and ultimately choose only one of the many words found there. All a rhyming dictionary does is map out possibilities so you can pick and choose. A song is not a math problem, and a rhyming dictionary is not the teacher’s answer book. Some songsters insist that if you use a rhyming dictionary, you’re somehow cheating–but songwriting doesn’t work that way. The idea is that you, the artist, can save a bit of time while also discovering some rhyming connections that you might never have thought of otherwise. Yes, somewhere out there, helpful people have done the spadework of combing the entire English language meticulously for rhymes. Let’s make sure you’ve got every possible chance of uncovering something beautiful.Ī rhyming dictionary is a book or website that lists all possible rhymes for a given word. If used clumsily or hastily, though, a rhyming dictionary will reveal only the same old predictable rhymes. Handled well, a rhyming dictionary infuses your writing with brilliant new imagery and ideas, helping you nest the perfect word in the perfect place. Whether or not you can unearth these new connections depends on your skill. Or–better yet–it could sprout something entirely new and green and unexpected. Somewhere, buried deep in the pages of this rhyming dictionary, an entry waits like a tiny seed that could suddenly take root, erupt through the earth, and push that song that’s been stuck for months back into daylight.
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