Perfect rhyme (also called full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme) is a form of
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions:
* The stressed vowel sound in both words must be identical, as well as any subsequent sounds. For example, the words ''kit'' and ''bit'' form a perfect rhyme, as do ''spaghetti'' and ''already'' in American accents.
* The
onset of the stressed syllable in the words must differ. For example, ''pot'' and ''hot'' are a perfect rhyme, while ''leave'' and ''believe'' are not.
Word pairs that satisfy the first condition but not the second (such as the aforementioned ''leave'' and ''believe'') are technically identities (also known as identical rhymes or identicals).
Homophones
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
, being words of different meaning but identical pronunciation, are an example of identical rhyme.
Imperfect rhyme
Half rhyme or imperfect rhyme, sometimes called bastard rhyme, near-rhyme, lazy rhyme, or slant rhyme, is a type of
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
formed by words with similar but not identical sounds. In most instances, the vowel segments are different and the consonants are identical or vice versa. This type of rhyme is also called approximate rhyme, inexact rhyme, imperfect rhyme (in contrast to perfect rhyme), off rhyme, analyzed rhyme, suspended rhyme, or sprung rhyme.
Use in popular music
Rock and punk
In the 1977 song "
God Save the Queen
"God Save the King" ("God Save the Queen" when the monarch is female) is '' de facto'' the national anthem of the United Kingdom. It is one of two national anthems of New Zealand and the royal anthem of the Isle of Man, Australia, Canada and ...
" by the
English punk rock band the
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...
, the authors create a rhyme with the lines "God save the ''
queen
Queen most commonly refers to:
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen (band), a British rock band
Queen or QUEEN may also refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Q ...
''" and "the
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
''regime''".
The 1979 song "
Up the Junction" by the English
new wave band
Squeeze makes extensive use of half-rhyme. The opening verse, for example:
I never thought it would ''happen''
With me and a girl from ''Clapham''
Out on the windy ''common''
That night I ain't ''forgotten''
Hip hop and rap
Half rhyme is often used, along with
assonance
Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...
, in
rap music
Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...
. That can be used to avoid rhyming
clichés (e.g., rhyming ''knowledge'' with ''college'') or obvious rhymes and can give the writer greater freedom and flexibility in forming lines of
verse. Additionally, some words
have no perfect rhyme in English, necessitating the use of slant rhyme. The use of half rhyme may also enable the construction of longer
multisyllabic rhymes
In rapping and poetry, multisyllabic rhymes (also known as compoundEdwards, Paul, 209, ''How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC'', Chicago Review Press, p. 87.Eminem, with Sacha Jenkins, 2008, ''The Way I Am'', Dutton Adult, p. 17.Eminem, ...
than is otherwise possible.
In the following lines from the song "
N.Y. State of Mind
"N.Y. State of Mind" is a song by American rapper Nas from his debut studio album '' Illmatic'' (1994). The song's production was handled by DJ Premier who sampled two jazz songs: "Mind Rain" by Joe Chambers and "Flight Time" by Donald Byrd. A ...
" by the rapper
Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air (S ...
, the author uses half rhyme in a complex
cross rhyme pattern:
And be prosperous, though we live ''dangerous''
Cops could just arrest me, ''blamin' us'', we're held like hostages
Unconventional exceptions
The children's nursery rhyme
This Little Piggy
"This Little Pig Went to Market" (often shortened to "This Little Piggy") is an English-language nursery rhyme and fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19297.
Lyrics
The rhyme is usually counted out on an infant or toddler's ...
displays an unconventional (in most modern dialects) slant rhyme. ''Home'' is rhymed with ''none''. This is because in Early modern English these words often rhymed. In some dialects of
Northern English English
The spoken English language in Northern England has been shaped by the region's history of settlement and migration, and today encompasses a group of related accents and dialects known as Northern England English or Northern English.
The s ...
, these still rhyme.
This little piggy stayed (at) ''home''...this little piggy had ''none''.
In
The Hives
The Hives are a Swedish garage rock band formed in Fagersta in 1993. After gaining success in Sweden throughout the 1990s, they rose to worldwide prominence in the early 2000s during the garage rock revival. The band's line-upconsisting of H ...
' song "
Dead Quote Olympics
''Tyrannosaurus Hives'' is the third studio album by Swedish rock band the Hives, released on 19 July 2004 through Polydor Records internationally and Interscope Records in the United States. As of 2006 the album has sold 176,000 copies in Unite ...
", the singer
Howlin' Pelle Almqvist
Per "Pelle" Almqvist (born 29 May 1978), also known as Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer of garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of r ...
rhymes ''idea'' with ''library'':
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
This time you really got something, it's such a clever ''idea''
But it doesn't mean it's good because you found it at the ''libra-ri-a''
See also
*
Holorime
Holorime (or holorhyme) is a form of rhyme where two very similar sequences of sounds can form phrases composed of different words and with different meanings. For example, the two lines of Miles Kington's poem "A Lowlands Holiday Ends in Enjoyabl ...
*
Internal rhyme
In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines. By contrast, rhyme between line endings is known as end rhyme.
Internal rhyme schemes can be denote ...
*
Monorhyme Monorhyme is a passage, stanza, or entire poem in which all lines have the same end rhyme. The term "monorhyme" describes the use of one (mono) type of repetitious sound (rhyme). This is common in Arabic, Persian, Latin and Welsh work, such as '' Th ...
*
Rime riche
Rime riche () is a form of rhyme with three identical sounds (phoneme) including the stressed vowel. In classical French poetry (between Malherbe and Romanticism) rhymes normally have to be visual too: both sound and spelling have to be ident ...
Sources
* Smith, M., Joshi, A. (2020). ''Rhymes in the Flow: How Rappers Flip the Beat''. United States: University of Michigan Press.
* ''The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms: Third Edition''. (2016). United States: Princeton University Press.
* Lasser, M. (2019). ''City Songs and American Life, 1900-1950''. United Kingdom: University of Rochester Press.
* Barnes, W. (1854). ''A Philological Grammar: Grounded Upon English, and Formed from a Comparison of More Than Sixty Languages. Being an Introduction to the Science of Grammar and a Help to Grammars of All Languages, Especially English, Latin and Greek''. United Kingdom: J. R. Smith.
* Stoker, J. (2015). ''Slant Rhyme''. United Kingdom: Xlibris US.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect Rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...