---
title: "Rhyme Finder: Perfect and Near Rhymes | Shelf Sonnet"
description: "Find perfect and near rhymes for a word, grouped by syllable count and stress, from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Nothing you type is sent anywhere."
url: https://shelfsonnet.me/rhyme-finder/
---

The rhyming dictionary

# Rhyme finder

Type a word to find words that rhyme with it, perfectly or nearly, grouped by how many syllables they have and where their stress falls, so you can pick one that fits the beat of your line.

## Perfect and near rhymes

A **perfect rhyme** repeats every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end of the word: night and delight, summer and drummer. The finder takes those sounds from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so it matches how words sound, not how they are spelt: night rhymes with bite and height as well as light.

A **near rhyme** (also called slant or half rhyme) comes close: the stressed vowel is the same and the consonants are of the same kind (night and like), the vowels are close (seen and been), or one word adds a final consonant (eye and night). They are listed closest first. Poets from Emily Dickinson on have used them freely.

Each group shows its **stress pattern** with scansion marks: ´ for a stressed syllable, ˘ for an unstressed one, and a lighter stroke for secondary stress. Two-syllable rhymes for night split into words stressed on the second syllable, like delight (˘´), and words like daylight, stressed on the first. Choose one whose pattern fits your line.

Sounds are written in ARPAbet, the dictionary’s own spelling: `AY T` is the end of night, and a 1 after a vowel marks the main stress. Words with **two pronunciations**, like read or record, show a button for each. Everyday words come first; names, abbreviations and very rare words are hidden unless you ask for them. A word that is not in the dictionary is matched by its spelling instead, which is only a rough guide.

## Sources

- [The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict), Carnegie Mellon University: every pronunciation and stress; licence on the [About page](https://shelfsonnet.me/about/).
- Academy of American Poets, [glossary: rhyme](https://poets.org/glossary/rhyme): a perfect rhyme has the same final stressed vowel and all following sounds; a slant rhyme sounds similar but does not exactly rhyme.
- [SCOWL word lists](http://wordlist.aspell.net/) by Kevin Atkinson: which words are everyday English, used only to sort and filter the lists.

## Questions

**Why does orange have no perfect rhymes?**

No everyday English word ends in the same sounds from its stressed vowel on, so the finder lists none. Its near rhymes are words like foreign; poets also split a rhyme across two words or rhyme on an unstressed syllable.

**Why is a word I know missing?**

Names, abbreviations and rare words are hidden at first; tick “Include rare words” to see them. A few words are not in the dictionary at all, and some are listed with an American pronunciation that rhymes differently.

**Is the word I type sent anywhere?**

No. Your browser downloads the dictionary from this site once and searches it on your device.