Rhyme

This article is about the poetic technique. For the form of ice, see rime (ice).

A rhyme or rime is the association of words with similar sounds, a technique most often used in poetry. (Indeed, "a rhyme" is sometimes used to refer to a rhyming couplet or short verse; see nursery rhyme.) The term has also been applied (as "sight rhyme") to words which are similar only in their written forms.

Rime is the original spelling of the word. The spelling rhyme, which arose due to confusion with the word rhythm, is more commonly used today.

The concept of rhyme and its role in poetry vary considerably in different cultures. In English, and most European literary traditions, it is the final vowel/consonant combination that are repeated across the rhyming words. Categories of rhyme include:

• masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words. (rhyme, sublime, crime)
• feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the penultimate syllable of the words. (wiki, tricky, sticky)
• triple: a rhyme in which all three syllables of a three-syllable word are stressed equally.
• perfect: a rhyme between words that are identical in sound. (sight, site)
• oblique (or slant): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound.
• consonance: matching consonants. (her, dark)
• assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate)
• sight (or eye): a similarity in spelling but not in sound. (cough, bough)
• imperfect: a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. (den, siren)
• identity: a rhyme that starts at a consonant instead of a vowel, or rhyming a word with itself. (gun, begun)
• semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word. (bend, ending)

Rhyming words are commonly found at the ends of lines. When words within a single line are rhymed, it is called an internal rhyme.

Rhyme was unknown in Latin poetry, until it was introduced under the influence of local vernacular traditions in the early Middle Ages:

Dies irae, dies illa

Solvet saeclum in favilla

Teste David cum Sybilla

No English words rhyme with wasp.

In French, the rime riche "rich rhyme" of two syllables — and rime richissime "very rich rhyme" of more syllables — have been admired in the past. Here is an extreme example of rime richissime, spanning an entire verse:

Gall, amant de la Reine, alla (tour magnanime)

Gallamant de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nimes.

Gallus, lover of the Queen, went (magnanimous gesture)

Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nimes.