Rhyme Fun Facts

1. Google cannot tell me what English word has the most number of words that rhyme with it. If you're able to figure this out, let me know.

2. Whatever word does indeed have the most number of rhymes would technically be tied for first place with all of the words that...well...rhyme with it.

   
   

3. Wikipedia has a list of words that do not rhyme with any other word, as well as a list of words that are commonly supposed to have no rhymes but in actuality do.

   
   

4. Words that end with the archaic "th" tend to be difficult to rhyme with. There simply aren't enough of them left in English.

   
   

5. Two words that don't rhyme in one accent may well rhyme in another. (Obvious, isn't it?)

   
   

6. In some acents, "orange" rhymes with "hinge."

   
   

7. The strict definition of rhyme demands the precise matching of all sounds from the final stressed vowel to the end of the word. I'd never thought about it that before, but it makes perfect sense.

   
   

8. Wikipedia also has a list of "closed pairs" of rhyming words. Closed pairs is a phrase I had never heard before reading this article. Basically, it means that a word rhymes with only one other word. They're an exclusive pair.

   
   

9. A helpful way to find a suitable rhyme for a word is to run through the alphabet, swapping out the first letter of the word in question. (No, Wikipedia did not teach me this. I've done it for as long as I can remember.) For example, let's take the word "at" and race through the alphabet looking for words. I'll put the actual words in bold. Bat, cat, dat, eat (but, whoops, that doesn't actually rhyme), fat, gat, hat, iat, Jat, kat, lat, mat, nat--nope, but gnat works!--oat (you don't rhyme; how did you wiggle your way in here?), pat, quat, rat, sat, tat, uat, vat, wat (nope, and watt doesn't actually rhyme), xat, yat, zat.

   
   

10. Wikipedia is not the ultimate resource for rhyme facts. 'Tis simply a place chockful of handy lists and amusing facts that I found quite handy in writing this list.

    
    

    

    (Photo credit to Shaurya Sagar on Unsplash)