Create a List of Rhyming Words for a Poem or Song

Rhyming words are an important part of many poems and songs. Sometimes rhymes are easy to come up with in the spur of the moment. However, sometimes it’s helpful to have a resource to turn to for finding rhyming words when you’re writing a poem or song. By coming up with a list of words you want to rhyme and creatively brainstorming, you can make your own list of rhyming words for your poem or song.

Steps

Getting Started

1. Figure out the subject of your poem or song. The kinds of words you choose and rhymes you make will depend, in part, on what kind of poem or song you want to write. You’ll use different rhyming words if your poem is serious than you will if it’s funny.
   • For example, if you’re writing a serious love poem, you probably won’t use words or phrases like “burp” or “butcher knife.”
2. Write down a list of words and phrases. Using the subject of your poem or song, come up with a list of words and phrases related to the subject matter. Write them all down on a piece of paper.
   • For example, if the subject of your song is “global climate change,” write down words and phrases like “icecaps,” “sea level,” “ozone,” and “greenhouse.”
   • Include some general words that fit in most contexts too, like “this,” “for,” and “all.”
3. Pick out words with suffixes. A lot of the time you only need the last syllable in two words to rhyme. For example, the words “legislate” and “concentrate” rhyme, even though only the suffixes of the words, “-ate,” rhyme. These will be some of the easiest words to come up with rhymes for.
   • Start by pulling out any words in your list that have suffixes. For example, if your list consists of the words “matchmaker,” “jazz,” “likeable,” and “stubborn,” you would pull out “matchmaker” and “likeable,” since they have the suffixes –er and –able, respectively.
   • Put these words in a separate row of your list. You can label the row “Suffix Words” if you’d like.
4. Pick out words that are hard to rhyme. For example, if your list consists of the words, “orange,” “lava,” “tank,” and “plankton,” you would pick out “orange” and “plankton” as words that are hard to rhyme. Put these words in a separate row on your list. You can label the row “Hard to Rhyme Words.”
   • If you can’t think of a rhyme for a word right away, put it in the “Hard to Rhyme Words” row. You can always move it later if you think of a rhyme.

Getting Creative

1. Speak the words you want to rhyme out loud. Hearing the sounds of different words can help get your mind in tune to finding rhyming words. Speak the words you want to rhyme out loud and say any rhyming words or phrases that come to mind.
   • Use this time to brainstorm freely. Don’t worry about whether the rhyming words you come up with are the perfect words. Just write down whatever comes to mind.
   • For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “egg,” say it out loud and then say words that come to mind, like “peg,” “leg,” “Meg,” and “beg.”
2. Change your pronunciation. For words in the “Hard to Rhyme” row, you might be able to come up with rhyming words if you change your pronunciation. For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “grotto,” you could use the word “potato” if you pronounce is “pahtahto.”
   • If you get stuck, try using different accents. Sometimes an English word spoken with a Texas drawl can sound completely different than the same word spoken with an Irish brogue.
3. Use sound effects. With some words, you simply won’t be able to come up with a rhyme, even if one exists. To get past this stumbling block, let you imagination go wild and simply come up with sounds that rhyme with the word, even if those sounds aren’t words. The sounds you come up with might lead you to a rhyming word.
   • For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “orange,” you might come up with the sounds “nornge,” “fornge,” and “slornge.” If you look at the sound “fornge,” you’ll see that it is close to the word “forage.” “Orange” and “forage” might not be perfect rhyming words, but sometimes an OK sounding rhyme is the best you can do.
   • Even nonsense sounds are OK. If the word is “lounge,” and all you can come up with for a rhyming word is “tounge,” write it down anyway. You never know when a nonsense word or sound will fit into a poem or song.
4. Try out unique rhyming devices. Most of the rhymes we think of are either monosyllable or polysyllable rhymes. An example of a monosyllable rhyme pair is “legislate” and “pontificate.” An example of a polysyllable rhyme pair is “monocle” and “chronicle.” But there are other, less convention, rhymes out there.
   • Eye rhymes are two words with similar spelling but different pronunciation. For example, “love” and “move” are eye rhymes. Eye rhymes work especially well in written poetry since the reader can see the patter than you are creating even if the words don’t rhyme in a traditional sense.
   • Slant rhymes are two words that share a vowel or consonant sound. For example, “far” and “heart” are vowel slant rhymes, while “shape” and “keep" are consonant slant rhymes.
   • Rich rhymes are two words that are different but are pronounced the same. For example, “maze” and “maize” are rich rhymes.
5. Consult a rhyming dictionary. There many good rhyming dictionaries online. Try Rhyzome.com, Rhymer.com, and Writeexpress.com. All of these sites allow you to enter the word you want to rhyme and then search for words that rhyme with that word. With Rhymezone.com, you can choose whether to include phrases in your list of results..
   • This should be a last resort since your poem or song will benefit most from your own creativity. However, sometimes even the best writers need to turn to a dictionary or thesaurus, so don’t be ashamed to turn to a rhyming dictionary if you get stuck.
   • If you like the feel of a book in your hand, there are many rhyming dictionaries in print. Try the New Oxford Rhyming Dictionary or Merriam-Webster’s Rhyming Dictionary.

Putting it All Together

1. Create a new document. You’ll want to have an organized document that you can refer to when you’re writing your poem or song. Get a new piece of paper or word document and make four columns.
   • Label the columns “Words to Rhyme,” “Rhyming Words,” “Imperfect Rhymes,” and “Nonsense Words.”
2. Fill in the “Words to Rhyme” column. List the words you want to rhyme in this column. Leave a good amount of space between each word so you can fill in more than one rhyming word in the other columns.
3. Add to the “Rhyming Words” column. Take your brainstorm of rhyming words and pull out any words that are prefect rhymes. For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “skylight,” a perfect rhyming word would be “highlight.” If the word you want to rhyme is “token,” and perfect rhyming word would be “broken.”
4. Include some words in the “Imperfect Rhymes” column. Fill in this column with any words or phrases that are close to rhyming with your target word but aren’t perfect rhymes. For example, the word “forage” from above is an imperfect rhyme for “orange.”
5. Fill in the “Nonsense Words” column. Use this space to fill in any good nonsense words or sounds you came up with as rhymes for your target words. For example, you might have been brainstorming rhymes for the word “saga” and come up with “raw raw.”

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Sources and Citations

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