A rhyme happens when similar sounds, often the same sounds, are repeated at the end of two or more words. This is most commonly done on purpose in poems and songs to create a musical or pleasing effect in the last part of lines. Rhymes can also refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of words. Additionally, the word "rhyme" is sometimes used as a short way to describe brief poems, like nursery rhymes or Balliol rhymes.

Etymology

The word comes from Old French words "rime" or "ryme." These may have come from Old Frankish "rīm," a Germanic word meaning "series" or "sequence." This word was also found in Old English as "rīm," meaning "enumeration," "series," or "numeral," and in Old High German as "rīm." It is also related to Old Irish "rím" and Ancient Greek "arithmos," meaning "number." Another possibility is that the Old French words came from Latin "rhythmus," which is based on Ancient Greek "rhythmos," meaning "rhythm."

The spelling "rhyme" (from the original "rime") began to be used in Modern English because scholars connected it to the Latin word "rhythmus," even though this connection might not be correct in terms of the word's history. The older spelling "rime" is still used today in rare cases, such as in the title "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In the study of language and sound patterns, the words "rime" or "rhyme" are sometimes used to describe the part of a syllable that includes the vowel and any following consonants. Some people prefer to use "rime" to avoid confusion with the poetic use of "rhyme" discussed here.

Function of rhyming words

Rhyme is often enjoyed because it has a repeating pattern that sounds pleasant. It is a type of art used by writers to share ideas with readers or listeners. Rhyme also helps people remember information more easily. Using end rhymes regularly helps show where lines end, making it easier to understand the rhythm of a poem. Like other poetic tools, rhyming is used by poets for specific reasons. For example, William Shakespeare frequently used rhyming couplets to signal the end of a scene in his plays.

Types of rhyme

The word rhyme can be used in two ways: a specific way and a general way. In the specific way, two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and all sounds that follow are the same. Two lines of poetry rhyme if their final strong positions have rhyming words. Examples include sight and flight, deign and gain, madness and sadness, and love and dove.

Perfect rhymes are grouped based on where the final stressed syllable is located:

• Single (masculine): A rhyme where the stress is on the final syllable of the words (rhyme, sublime).
• Double (feminine): A rhyme where the stress is on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of the words (picky, tricky).
• Dactylic: A rhyme where the stress is on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (amorous, glamorous).

Feminine and dactylic rhymes can also be compound (or mosaic) rhymes, such as poet and know it.

In the general way, rhyme refers to various types of phonetic similarity between words and their use in organizing verse. These rhymes are classified by how similar the sounds are:

• Syllabic: A rhyme where the last syllable of each word sounds the same, but not necessarily with stressed vowels (cleaver, silver; pitter, patter; the final syllable of bottle and fiddle is /l/).
• Imperfect (or near): A rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable (wing, caring).
• Weak (or unaccented): A rhyme between two sets of one or more unstressed syllables (hammer, carpenter).
• Semirhyme: A rhyme with an extra syllable on one word (bend, ending).
• Forced (or oblique): A rhyme with an imperfect match in sound (green, fiend; one, thumb).
• Assonance: Matching vowels (shake, hate). Assonance is sometimes called slant rhymes, along with consonance.
• Consonance: Matching consonants (rabies, robbers).
• Half rhyme (or slant rhyme): Matching final consonants (hand, lend).
• Pararhyme: All consonants match (tick, tock).
• Alliteration (or head rhyme): Matching initial consonants (ship, short).

Identical rhymes are considered less than perfect in English poetry but are valued more in other literatures, such as rime riche in French poetry.

Words that are homophones or homonyms share the same stressed vowel sound but differ in the consonants before it. In perfect rhymes, the last stressed vowel and all following sounds must be identical in both words. If the sound before the stressed vowel is also the same, the rhyme is not considered perfect. An example of a "more than perfect" rhyme is an identical rhyme, where the vowels and the beginning sounds of the syllables are the same, as in gun and begun. Punning rhymes, such as bare and bear, are also identical rhymes. A rhyme may extend beyond the last stressed vowel. If it matches all the way to the beginning of a line, it is called a holorhyme ("For I scream/For ice cream").

In poetics, these are considered identity, not rhyme.

Eye rhymes (or sight rhymes and spelling rhymes) refer to words that look similar in spelling but sound different. Examples in English include cough, bough, and love, move. Some early poetry may have used these, but changes in pronunciation over time have made the rhymes no longer match.

Mind rhyme is a type of substitution rhyme similar to rhyming slang, but it is less common and only occurs when a listener or reader expects a specific word in a verse. For example, if someone hears "this sugar is neat / and tastes so sour" and expects "sweet" instead of "sour", a mind rhyme has occurred.

Rhymes can be grouped based on their position in a verse:

• Tail rhyme (also called end rhyme or rime couée): A rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse (the most common type).
• Internal rhyme: A rhyme that occurs in the middle of a line and matches a word or phrase at the end of a line or in another line.
• Off-centered rhyme: A type of internal rhyme that appears in unexpected places in a line. This is sometimes called a misplaced-rhyme scheme or a spoken word style.
• Holorhyme: When two entire lines have the same sound (mentioned earlier).
• Echo rhyme: When the same syllable endings are used (disease/ease).
• Broken rhyme: A type of enjambment that creates a rhyme by splitting a word at the end of a line to match the end word of another line.
• Cross rhyme: A rhyme where a sound at the end of a line matches a sound in the middle of the next (or previous) line.

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.

History

In many languages, such as modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in specific patterns as a key part of certain poetic forms, like ballads, sonnets, and rhyming couplets. Some rhyme patterns are linked to particular languages, cultures, or time periods, while others are used in many languages and cultures over time. However, not all poetry in the European tradition uses rhyme. Many modern poems avoid traditional rhyme patterns.

The earliest known examples of rhyming come from the Chinese Shi Jing, written around 1000 BCE. Rhyme also appears sometimes in the Bible. In classical Greek and Latin poetry, rhyme was rare. For example, the Roman poet Catullus used partial rhymes in one of his poems. The ancient Greeks understood rhyme, and some rhymes in the play The Wasps by Aristophanes are noted by a translator.

Rhyme became a required part of poetry in the Hebrew language around the 4th century CE. It appears in Jewish religious poems from the Byzantine Empire era. Scholars discovered this recently through thousands of poems called piyyuts found in the Cairo Geniza. It is believed that the use of rhyme spread from Hebrew religious poetry to Syriac Christian poetry (written in Aramaic) and later influenced Latin poetry, eventually reaching other European languages.

Rhyme is central to classical Arabic poetry, which has roots before the Islamic era. Some old sources suggest that Irish literature may have introduced rhyme to early medieval Europe, but this idea is debated. By the 7th century, the Irish had developed rhyming poetry to a high level of skill. The leonine verse, used in the 12th century, helped bring rhyme into High Medieval literature.

Rhyme entered European poetry during the High Middle Ages, influenced by Arabic poetry in Al Andalus (modern Spain). Arabic poets used rhyme widely since the 6th century, especially in long poems called qasidas.

Because languages and dialects change over time, words that rhyme in one time period or language may not rhyme in another. It can also be unclear how to pronounce words to make them rhyme. An example is this couplet from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus:

Rhyme in various languages

Rhymes were common in the Arabic language before the time of Islam, appearing in letters, poems, songs, and long rhyming poems called qasidas. The Quran also uses a type of rhymed writing called saj'.

In Celtic languages, rhyming works differently from many other languages, even though Celtic languages have been influenced by Romance and English languages. Today, despite being around English and French cultures, Celtic rhymes still show their own unique features. In classical Irish poetry, rhymes depend on the last stressed vowel and any long vowels that follow. Consonants are grouped into six classes for rhyming purposes. Consonants in the same class can rhyme, even if they are not exactly the same. For example, "b" and "d" can rhyme because they are both "voiced plosives," and "bh" and "l" can rhyme because they are both "voiced continuants." However, "l" (a "voiced continuant") cannot rhyme with "ph" (a "voiceless continuant"). Also, for a perfect rhyme, a palatalized consonant must rhyme with another palatalized consonant, and a velarized consonant must rhyme with another velarized consonant. In later times, these rules were not always followed, and simple vowel repetition was often enough for rhymes, as seen in the traditional Irish song "Bríd Óg Ní Mháille":

"Is a Bhríd Óg Ní Mháille"
"Ah young Bridget O'Malley"
"S tú d'fhág mo chroí cráite"
"You have left my heart breaking"

In this example, the vowels are the same, but the consonants, though both palatalized, do not match in the traditional rhyming system.

In Chinese poetry, tone quality (how tones are shaped) is an important part of rhyming. Classical Chinese poetry often uses rhymes in paired lines, with the last syllable of each line rhyming. Studying rhymes in Chinese also helps understand older forms of the language, like Middle Chinese.

Old English poetry mostly uses alliteration, which is the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words. One of the earliest rhyming poems in English is called "The Rhyming Poem." In English, stress on syllables affects how rhymes are perceived. A perfect rhyme happens when two words have the same final stressed vowel and all sounds that follow.

Some English words, like "orange" and "silver," are often said to have no rhymes. However, creative writers can use phrases like "door hinge" or "more range" to rhyme with "orange," or use less common words like "Brolenge" or "Gorringe." Alternatives like "amber" or "bright and argent" can also be used instead. Skilled speakers might adjust pronunciation, such as saying "oringe" for "orange," to make rhymes easier.

John Milton, in his work "Paradise Lost," discussed rhymes in English poetry. W. H. Auden, in "The Dyer's Hand," offered a more balanced view of rhymes. Forced or awkward rhymes are often found in poor-quality poetry called doggerel.

In French poetry, rhymes often include matching both the final vowel and the starting consonant of the last syllable in a line. This may sound weak to someone used to English rhymes. For example, in English, "flour" and "flower" rhyme perfectly, but in French, rhymes like "doigt" (finger) and "doit" (must) are common and strong. French rhymes are sometimes grouped into categories like "poor rhyme," "sufficient rhyme," "rich rhyme," and "very rich rhyme," based on how many sounds match.

French rhymes also treat ending consonants differently. Some final letters in French words are not pronounced today but were considered important for rhymes in classical French poetry. The letter "e" at the end of a word, called a "mute e," was important for rhymes even if it was not spoken. Words ending with this "e" formed "double rhymes," while words without it formed "single rhymes." These types of rhymes were used in alternating patterns in poetry.

Final consonants that are not pronounced also affect rhymes. For example, in old French, "d" and "t" were considered the same sound, and "pont" rhymed with "vont" but not with "long." Some rules for old French pronunciation include:
– Voiced and unvoiced consonants (like "d" and "t") are treated the same at the end of words.
– Nasal vowels (like those in "essaim") rhyme whether spelled with "m" or "n."
– If a word ends with a stop consonant followed by "s," the stop is not pronounced, like in "temps" and "dents."

A special type of rhyme called "holorime" uses the entire line of a poem to rhyme. Alphonse Allais was known for using this style. An example is:

"Gall, amant de la Reine, alla (tour magnanime) Galamment de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nîmes."
"Gallus, the Queen's lover, went (a magnanimous gesture) Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nîmes."

In German poetry, rhymes that are not perfect are often accepted. These include rhymes like "e" with "ä" or "ö," "i" with "ü," "ei" with "eu" (sometimes spelled "äu"), and long vowels with their short versions. Examples from Friedrich Schiller's "An die Freude" include:

• "Deine Zauber binden w ieder / Alle Menschen werden Br üder"
• "Freude trinken alle W esen / Alle Guten, alle B ösen"

Ancient Greek poetry was based on strict meter, matching the rhythm of syllables with long and short vowels. Rhymes, if used, were not a main feature of the poetry.