A rhyming dictionary is a specialized

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

designed for use in writing

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...

. In a rhyming dictionary, words are categorized into

equivalence class In mathematics, when the elements of some set S have a notion of equivalence (formalized as an equivalence relation), then one may naturally split the set S into equivalence classes. These equivalence classes are constructed so that elements a ...

es that consist of words that

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

with one another. They also typically support several different kinds of rhymes and possibly also

alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

as well. Because rhyming dictionaries are based on

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...

, they are difficult to compile. Words and rhyming patterns change their pronunciation over time and between

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

s. Rhyming dictionaries for

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

Elizabethan poetry Elizabethan literature refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature. In addition to drama and the theatre, it saw a flowering of poetry, with n ...

, or

Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...

would have quite different content. Rhyming dictionaries are invaluable for

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

; as they record pronunciation, they can be used to reconstruct pronunciation differences and similarities that are not reflected in spelling. A simple

reverse dictionary A reverse dictionary is a dictionary alphabetized by the reversal of each entry: :kcots (stock) :kcotseid (diestock) :kcotser (restock) :kcotsevil (livestock) Before computers, reverse dictionaries were tedious to produce. The first computer-prod ...

, which collates words starting from the end, provides a rough rhyming dictionary to the extent that spelling follows pronunciation. However, a precise rhyming dictionary reflects pronunciation, not spelling. Today, there are many

websites A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...

on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

that provide the same function as rhyming dictionaries.

Examples

Rhyme Genie Rhyme Genie is a rhyming dictionary software developed by Idolumic for the Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the pri ...

Walker's Rhyming Dictionary ''Walker's Rhyming Dictionary'' was made by John Walker and released in 1775. It is an English reverse dictionary, meaning that it is sorted by reading words in reverse order. As spelling somewhat predicts pronunciation, this functions as a rhymin ...

External links

Rhymes generator
Online rhyme generator for English and German (Types of rhyme: perfect rhymes, general rhymes,

assonance Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels (e.g., ''meat, bean'') or between their consonants (e.g., ''keep, cape''). However, assonance between consonants is generally called ''consonance'' in America ...

and pararehyme)

References

Rhyme Dictionaries by type {{Poetry-stub

Examples

See also

External links

References