Rhymezone

[jsmiam]

Years ago I discovered a website for rhyming words called “rhymer” and it was (keyword was) good.

Short version: I discovered Rhymezone when rhymer pissed me off, and wow, it’s much better in many ways, including the number of words. To be fair rhymer still has one superior feature, the ability to choose beginning or ending rhymes.

Long version: sadly, rhymer relatively recently became a severe example of enshittification, in this case due to the overbearing ads that overlay, scroll along, and in a way make me almost say “some of these asshole websites deserve AI stealing their clicks.” (Not really. AI is theft of ideas first, and also clicks.). But while rhymer always had ads, they weren’t disruptive. Now they are. (Btw, Rhymezone has ads too, but they aren’t obnoxiously disruptive… so far).

 

[lovecraft68]

Bit off topic but this reminded me of a video where Eminem discusses rhyming and how there are no direct rhymes for some words-his example was Orange I think-but he then demonstrated how you could change the pronunciation of another word, and when sung/rapped quickly enough it sound like a direct rhyme.

I think that's a skill many people never saw as, or knew, was a skill.

Doubt it would work in written form though because people will pronounce everything correctly in their mind.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I love rhyme zone. I use it often when writing lyrics.

I also echo lc68 that there is a real art to rhyming. Funny that he should mention orange. Here is a little garage punk song that I wrote called Dye my Hair.

Gonna dye my hair
Gonna make a change
to somethin' really diff'rent
some color you hate
Gonna dye my hair
Gonna break free
Maybe chop it all off
so everyone can see

that I'm so through with you
an' I'm movin' on to somethin' new

Gonna dye my hair
(Dye my hair)
in the bathroom sink
(Dye my hair)
to somethin' really wild
(Dye my hair)
I don't care what you think
(Dye my hair)

'Cause I'm so done with you
an' I'm movin' on to someone new

Gonna dye it blood red
That's what I said
Gonna dye it bright green
just to be mean
Gonna dye it hot pink
just to make you blink
Peroxide white
just for spite
Gonna dye it purple
just to be hurtful
Gonna dye it orange
Nothin' rhymes with orange
Gonna dye it jet black
No, you'd like that
Gonna dye it blue
just to say "fuck you!"

Notice the rhyme with purple. It doesn't really rhyme. It's rhyme license. If you want to have original rhymes you have to get into rhyme license since all of the perfect rhymes have been done to death.

Some other bits:

Now, I know I'm not exactly snow white pure
but I still have my standards, that's for sure
Don't take it to heart, I'm not tryin' to hurt you
It's just that sometimes a girl's gotta protect her virtue

Dressed to kill, dressed for danger
Dressed for success, dressed for failure
Pass me a drink and you'll be my savior
You'll just have to excuse my behavior
Too much whiskey, not enough soda
So hungover, what I told ya
Groped all night by some Casanova
Tell me all about my indecent exposure

Rock me, roll me, outta control me
Lipstick prophet on the mirror told me
Seven years bad luck, whaddaya say?
Just can't stop myself anyway

Maintain radio silence
Entertain the mindless
Maintain radio silence
Maintain radio silence
Perpetuate the blindness
Maintain radio silence

Too good to be
true or believe
Looking to me
I'm dazzled to see
Allure to stun
like rays from a gun
like tears from the sun
leaves me undone
Take me away
to another plane
Gazing all day
Bask in my bane
Using my time
Losing my mind
Beautiful eyes
tell beautiful lies

Living Isis, goddess in flesh
Foreign tongues leaving rivals undressed
The object of desire for the world obsessed - oh yeah

I'm available without a prescription
I can be taken over the counter
No, I'm not covered by your insurance plan
Just take me twice ev'ry twenty-four hours

So open up the closet
and take it from the rack
Wrap it all around you
and zip it up the back
Then walk into the room
and watch them all react

Steppin' out in my little black dress

Six, six, six, times I told ya
Your desperate pedestal is gettin' colder
You always gotta mix your scotch down with your cola
I won't be tied down with some lame soldier

 

[XerXesXu]

@pink_silk_glove

'Dressed to kill, dressed for danger
Dressed for success, dressed for failure
Pass me a drink and you'll be my savior
You'll just have to excuse my behavior
Too much whiskey, not enough soda
So hungover, what I told ya
Groped all night by some Casanova
Tell me all about my indecent exposure'

You're a poet 'n I didn't know it.

 

[THBGato]

I love the fact that rhyme is what gives linguists clues to older pronunciations. A well-known example is that "love" and "prove" used to rhyme, so we know "prooved" was probably pronounced "pruv'd".

If this be error, and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

 

[OddLove]

When I was a kid the first rap music I ever heard was Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, and Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. I remember as a teenager I got into several arguments about whether they were really rhyming because so many people only considered 'Perfect Rhymes' as a true rhyme. So something like Earth, Curse, Dirt, Worm, wouldn't be considered rhymes to them. But sonically it worked. With written poetry there's a limitation for readers, and that limitation is their own accent vs the authors accent. And through translation of accents, rhymes can be lost.

But I just remember being blown away at how sonically pleasing rap was because as I got into more 'technical' rappers like Tech N9ne and Eminem, they were doing all sorts of different tricks internally with each stanza. One insane example is on Speedom, Tech N9ne has a four line section in the last verse where twenty of about forty or so words start with 'F' and he's also adding internal rhyme schemes in each line/bar, as well as nailing end rhymes. I don't know what the technique is called, but it's one of dozens used in rap.

That one specifically is like the classic "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers" tongue twisting one. It's difficult to say, but when said quick and flawlessly, it's sonically pleasing to the brain.

There's songs where someone like MF Doom or Tech N9ne will use the cadence of a classic Christmas Corel or nursery rhyme through a verse, bridge, or chorus. At times they'll be using muti syllable ends rhymes schemes, multi syllable internal rhyme schemes, with intricate cadences in rhythm of their flow while also creating patterns with their voice inflexion on top of that. So they can juggling like five or more different things like.

At the same time, some of them will be using reference-themes, like one silly example could be Shrek. They can talk about 'Stay out my swamp' instead of 'Neighborhood' or 'Lawn', then can talk about being 'Deep' by referencing Shrek's "Orges are like onions, we got lots of layers.", then can talk about kicking someone's Ass, and use a double entendre to relate it to Donkey, and then talk about Murphy's Law to relate Donkey to Eddie Murphy. It honestly get's absurd what some of the 'Writers' in rap do.

Yeah, there's generic club rap and generic gangster rap, and that will always been mainstream. But when I look deep under the surface, I find some of the most skilled and creative writers in music.

Okay, kind of off topic but about rhyming overall.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

You're a poet 'n I didn't know it.

Thx. (blush)

 

[StillStunned]

I love the fact that rhyme is what gives linguists clues to older pronunciations. A well-known example is that "love" and "prove" used to rhyme, so we know "prooved" was probably pronounced "pruv'd".

Or local pronunciations. As Tony Harrison notes in "Them & [uz]" from The School of Eloquence:

"You can tell the Receivers where to go
(and not aspirate it) once you know
Wordsworth's matter/water are full rhymes"

And let's not get into the Great Vowel Shift.

Alliteration is also a useful guide to figuring out pronunciation. For example, it's Sir GAH-wain, not Sir Ga-WAIN. We know this because the initial letter changes, often to a W, to match the alliteration. In French he's usually Gauvain, but sometimes also Vauvain. (The modern forms of the name are Gavin and Kevin.)

 

[Katie_Mae]

Or local pronunciations.

I was in a online group once where a woman posted a photo of a page from a children's book mocking it because "on what planet does this rhyme."

Long story short, it was finally communicated that the words rhymed in the accent of the writer of the book, but not in the accent of the woman reading it.

 

[WittyUserName]

Years ago I discovered a website for rhyming words called “rhymer” and it was (keyword was) good.

Short version: I discovered Rhymezone when rhymer pissed me off, and wow, it’s much better in many ways, including the number of words. To be fair rhymer still has one superior feature, the ability to choose beginning or ending rhymes.

Long version: sadly, rhymer relatively recently became a severe example of enshittification, in this case due to the overbearing ads that overlay, scroll along, and in a way make me almost say “some of these asshole websites deserve AI stealing their clicks.” (Not really. AI is theft of ideas first, and also clicks.). But while rhymer always had ads, they weren’t disruptive. Now they are. (Btw, Rhymezone has ads too, but they aren’t obnoxiously disruptive… so far).

I used to use Rhymezone a lot when I was big into Poetry. I still go on occasionally. I've never heard of Rhymer before.