List of closed pairs of English rhyming words

This page has a list of closed pairs of English rhyming words—in each pair, both words rhyme with each other and only with each other.

Monosyllabic pairs bairn, cairn boosts, roosts coaxed, hoaxed dwarfed, morphed how've, Lauv lounge, scrounge lymph, nymph palped, scalped salve, valve smooth, soothe

Disyllabic pairs

Trochaic pairs In a trochaic pair, each word is a trochee, with the first syllable stressed and the second syllable unstressed.

agile, fragile anguish, languish ankle, rankle anther, panther argent, sergeant ascot, mascot audit, plaudit austral, claustral awful, lawful badger, cadger bailiff, caliph bantam, phantom bargain, jargon Bernard, gurnard beverage, leverage biplane, triplane birchen, urchin bodice, goddess bonnet, sonnetIf elisions are accepted as rhymed, these could be said to rhyme with wannit when it means "want it". booger, sugar briefly, chiefly broadcast, podcast bullet, pullet buskin, Ruskin buttock, futtock cadre, padre cartridge, partridge cavern, tavern central, ventral cheaply, deeply cherish, perish Christmas, isthmus churlish, girlish clothing, loathing coastal, postal cockney, knock-knee coffee, toffee collet, wallet colored, dullard coltish, doltish combat, wombat cornet, hornet corpus, porpoise corset, Dorset cortex, vortex Cossacks, Trossachs

coven, oven cowboy, ploughboy crackpot, jackpot curlew, purlieu custom, frustum darken, hearken darkling, sparkling deafest, prefaced detail, retail dictum, victim discal, fiscal dockside, oxide doesn't, wasn't doorway, Norway dovetail, love-tale emu, seamew errand, gerund exile, flexile extant, sextant eyebrow, highbrow faithful, scatheful farness, harness fescue, rescue figment, pigment finis, Guinness Finland, inland fitness, witness fixture, mixture flagship, hagship flourish, nourish fountain, mountain frequence, sequence fustic, rustic gallant, talent ghostess, hostess ghostly, mostly gibbon, ribbon grapnel, shrapnel gremlin, Kremlin gusset, russet harpist, sharpest hazard, mazzard Hendon, tendon highland, island hireling, squireling hotness, squatness

image, scrimmage inkhorn, stinkhorn juncture, puncture junket, plunket kiddish, Yiddish kidney, Sidney lappet, tappet launder, maunder layoff, playoff leeward, seaward lengthen, strengthen lilacs, smilax livid, vivid lonely, only lordship, wardship loudly, proudly loyal, royalIn many dialects, these also rhyme with oil, soil, boil, spoil, mohel, etc. magnate, stagnate menu, venue milder, wilder mileage, silage minnow, winnow modus, nodus mopish, Popish mournful, scornful mufti, tufty nescience, prescience nonage, Swanage nostrum, rostrum nuisance, usance ogress, progress pallor, valor parsley, sparsely peevish, thievish person, worsen pinto, Shinto rabid, tabid rhymeless, timeless ripened, stipend ripplet, triplet ruttish, sluttish Scotsman, yachtsman Scottish, sottish sextile, textile siphon, hyphen spoonful, tuneful tasteful, wasteful torpor, warper

Trochaic-or-iambic pairs In an trochaic-or-iambic pair, each word can be either a trochee (stressed on the first syllable) or an iamb (stressed on the second syllable). contract, entr'acte discount, miscount hereby, nearby sunlit, unlit thereby, whereby therein, wherein thereof, whereof therewith, wherewith

Iambic pairs In an iambic pair, each word is an iamb and has the first syllable unstressed and the second syllable stressed. barrage, garage chorale, morale eclipsed, ellipsed gyrate, irate henceforth, thenceforth Koran, Oran purvey, survey

Trisyllabic pairs

Dactylic pairs In a dactylic pair, each word is a dactyl and has the first syllable stressed and the second and third syllables unstressed. agitate, sagittate analyst, panellist article, particle bandmaster, grandmaster banister, canister bingeworthy, cringeworthy bonytail, ponytail brotherhood, motherhood charlatan, tarlatan collier, jollier copulate, populate creepier, sleepier cuneiform, uniform devious, previous (Although there is a proscribed pronunciation of mischievous ("mischevious") that rhymes with these two words.) Everest, cleverest fealty, realty fortify, mortify gradient, radiant javelin, ravelin jawbreaker, lawbreaker jitterbug, litterbug Kodiak, zodiac lexicon, Mexican loyalty, royalty manhandle, panhandle medium, tedium mellophone, telephone minister, sinister modulate, nodulate mutiny, scrutiny president, resident serpentine, turpentine (in RP, and some British English dialects)

Amphibrachic pairs In an amphibrachic pair, each word is an amphibrach and has the second syllable stressed and the first and third syllables unstressed. attainder, remainder autumnal, columnal concoction, decoction (In GA, these rhyme with auction; there is also the YouTube slang word obnoxion, meaning something that is obnoxious.) distinguish, extinguish pneumatic, rheumatic

Anapestic pairs In an anapestic pair, each word is an anapest and has the first and second syllables unstressed and the third syllable stressed.

At this time, no anapestic pairs have been found. The pair "uneclipsed, unellipsed" is disqualified because uneclipsed also rhymes with ellipsed, and because unellipsed also rhymes with eclipsed.

Tetrasyllabic pairs beautifully, dutifully copulated, populated culminated, fulminated deifying, reifying delegated, relegated generated, venerated lacerated, macerated lecherously, treacherously

Pentasyllabic pairs constabulary, vocabulary

Asymmetric pairs In an asymmetric pair, the words differ in number of syllables. Each pair is in a subsection according to the respective numbers of syllables in the words when they are in alphabetical order.

Disyllabic-and-monosyllabic pairs

Disyllabic-and-trisyllabic pairs cerement, endearment crucial, fiducial digest (noun), obligest

Trisyllabic-and-disyllabic pairs combustion, fustian diminished, finished eleventh, seventh

Trisyllabic-and-tetrasyllabic pairs bestial, celestial bigotry, obligatory brilliant, resilient cordial, primordial fricative, indicative

Tetrasyllabic-and-trisyllabic pairs alluvial, pluvial behaviour, saviour commodity, oddity (In GA, these rhyme with Alaudidae) emergency, urgency habitual, ritual sarrusophone, sousaphone

Pentasyllabic-and-tetrasyllabic pairs annihilated, violated illuminated, ruminated

See also List of English words without rhymes

External links RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus Merriam-Webster's Word Central RhymeBrain Rhyming Dictionary. Easy to read on your phone. Rhymes.net Category:English rhymes - Wiktionary