A rhyming dictionary that works out the sounds itself
This rhyming dictionary finds words that rhyme with the word you type — perfect rhymes such as light / night / bright, and near rhymes (also called slant or half rhymes) such as light / ride / wise, where the vowel matches but the ending only resembles it. Results are grouped by syllable count so you can fill a line that needs exactly two beats, and you can widen the match to the last syllable only when a long word has no full rhyme.
Song writers, poets, rappers, greeting-card writers and teachers building phonics lessons all need the same thing: a fast list of real words that share an ending sound, not just an ending spelling. Cough does not rhyme with dough, and height does rhyme with kite. That is why the tool converts every word to sounds before comparing them.
The whole word list and the pronunciation rules are built into the page, so searches run in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How to use the Rhyming Dictionary
- Type a word in Word to rhyme. Results update as you type; if you enter a phrase, the last word is used.
- Choose Perfect, Near or Both. Near rhymes are shown with a dashed outline and a small “near” tag.
- Use Syllables to keep only one-, two-, three- or four-plus-syllable words, and Sort by to put common words, A–Z order or the closest sounds first.
- If a long word has few rhymes, switch Ending sound to match to “Last syllable only”; for consonance (same final consonant, any vowel) choose “Final consonant sound only”.
- Tick Include rare and technical words to search the full list, including plant names, archaic words and jargon.
- Click any result to look up its rhymes, or press Copy list or Download .txt to take the whole list with you.
Rhyming Dictionary features
Sound-based matching
Every word is converted to phonemes with letter-to-sound rules, so rhymes are found across spellings — height, kite and bright land together, while cough and dough do not.
Perfect and near rhymes
Perfect rhymes share everything from the stressed vowel to the end. Near rhymes keep the vowel (or a close vowel) and an ending of the same type — voiced/voiceless pairs, nasals, or the same final consonant.
About 48,000 words
Single words from Princeton WordNet 3.1 plus its irregular plurals and past forms (children, thrown, flew). Words with only one dictionary sense are treated as rare and hidden until you ask for them.
Syllable and sound filters
Group and filter results by syllable count, and choose how much of the ending must match: from the stressed vowel, the last syllable, or the final consonant sound.
Shows its working
The line above the results shows the word’s estimated pronunciation in IPA, its syllable count, the rhyme sound being matched and whether the pronunciation came from the exception table or the rules.
Perfect, near and other kinds of rhyme
| Type | What matches | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect (true) rhyme | Stressed vowel and every sound after it | light – night – delight |
| Near / slant rhyme | Same or close vowel, similar ending | light – ride – wise |
| Last-syllable rhyme | Only the final syllable | beautiful – wonderful – cheerful |
| Consonance | Final consonant sound only | light – boat – cut |
| Eye rhyme (not matched) | Spelling only | cough – dough |
How the rhymes are calculated
There is no pronunciation dictionary behind this page. Each word goes through English letter-to-sound rules modelled on the US Naval Research Laboratory rules published in 1976 (for example “igh” → /aɪ/, “tion” → /ʃən/, a silent final “e” lengthening the vowel before it), then a stress guess based on suffixes, prefixes and syllable weight, then vowel reduction. A hand-written table of about 1,900 irregular words — one, said, colonel, bear, women — overrides the rules, and plurals, past tenses and compounds (moonlight = moon + light) are built from their parts.
The rhyme sound is everything from the last stressed vowel to the end of the word. Perfect rhymes have identical rhyme sounds; near rhymes are scored by vowel similarity and by the type of consonants that follow. Expect the occasional miss on rare words, names and recent borrowings, where English spelling is least predictable. The IPA Phonetic Converter shows the same pronunciations for whole sentences, and the Syllable Counter uses the same syllable counts.
Tips for writing with rhymes
- Search the word you want to end a line with, not the one you already have — it is easier to change a line than a rhyme.
- Near rhymes sound more natural in songs and modern poetry; perfect rhymes suit nursery verse, comedy and greeting cards.
- Match the stress as well as the sound: delight fits where night would leave the line a beat short.
- Overused rhyme pairs (love / above, fire / desire) read as clichés; the Cliché Finder flags stock phrases elsewhere in your lines.
Rhyming Dictionary FAQ
How many words are in this rhyming dictionary?
About 48,000: every single-word, letters-only entry in WordNet 3.1 that is not just a name, plus WordNet’s irregular forms, with entries that WordNet glosses as offensive or vulgar left out. Common words are shown by default; tick “Include rare and technical words” to search them all.
Why is a word I expected missing?
Either it is not in the list (WordNet omits most names, slang and very new words), it is marked rare, or the rules guessed its pronunciation differently. Try “Include rare and technical words”, or switch to near rhymes.
What is the difference between a perfect rhyme and a near rhyme?
A perfect rhyme repeats the stressed vowel and everything after it (cold / gold). A near rhyme keeps a similar vowel or a similar ending but not both exactly (cold / road), which is common in songwriting.
Does it use American or British pronunciation?
Matching follows General American pronunciation for words like bath and dance, which rhyme with math and stance in the US but not in southern British English. Most rhymes are the same in both.
Can I find rhymes for a phrase?
The tool rhymes the last word of what you type, which is what matters at the end of a line. Multi-word rhymes (orange / door hinge) are not generated.
Is anything I type stored or sent?
No. The word list, rules and search all run in your browser; nothing is uploaded or saved.