The Oxford Rhyming Dictionary

dove, guv, love, luv, glove, above, ring-dove, turtle dove, true love, foxglove, self-love, light-o'-love

spooky, kooky, pukey, fluky, kabuki, adsuki, azuki, bouzouki, Suzuki, adzuki, saluki

Is your writing unexciting? Want to be smitten with what you've written? The Oxford Rhyming Dictionary will take your rhyming skills to a whole new level.

At the end of 2003, Johnny Wilkinson became a national hero; his left-footed goal sealed England's victory in the Rugby World Cup. A first for England in the history of the Rugby World Cup, it was an event that was celebrated across the nation. Appropriately, the poet laureate Andrew Motion wrote a tribute to the team and the man who brought the Cup home. Unfortunately the laureate's offering didn't appear until four months after the fact. The problem? Finding a rhyme for Wilkinson. In the event, Wilkinson was left out of the poem altogether. Rhymes are often elusive: the word orange is famously touted as unrhymable, yet it doesn't do so badly when put next to lozenge. But rhyming is not just the distant enigmatic domain of poets and linguists, rhymes enliven our language every day; from adverts to pop songs and jingles, rhyming is everywhere.

The Oxford Rhyming Dictionary has the merit of being the biggest, most comprehensive one available. This is a considerable advantage in an arena where people are always trying to find rhymes for seemingly unrhymable words. Unlike most rhyming dictionaries, this one is organised on the basis of how closely a given word rhymes with its neighbours. The closer together two words are, the more closely they rhyme; the further apart they are, the less perfectly they rhyme. This is because the dictionary is based on principles of pronunciation rather than spelling or word endings. So, even words which are known as difficult (or even impossible) to rhyme can be paired with words which are at least near-rhymes, adding that 'je ne sais quoi' that rhyming gives to a piece of writing.

The difference between a perfect rhyme and a near rhyme (orange lozenge and silver salver are good examples of near rhymes) is quite simple. A perfect rhyme (also known as a 'full rhyme' or 'true rhyme') such as smitten/written depends on the last stressed vowel, in this case the 'i', and all the sounds following it; they make up the rhyming element. A half rhyme (also known as 'imperfect rhyme' or 'near rhyme') such as orange/lozenge is a rhyme where the sounds following the stressed vowel sounds, in this case 'a' and 'e', do not match. Another type of rhyme that is fun to play with is a 'mosaic rhyme', where a rhyming element uses more than one word. For instance, here is a couplet from a poem posted on the internet, which takes us back to Andrew Motion, his tribute to the England Rugby team, and the impossible-to-rhyme Johnny Wilkinson:

You couldn't rhyme Wilkinson,
And your verses ain't silken, son,

(by Hugh Clary - 22/03/04 - visit the emule.com website)

So, for the prime rhyme of your lifetime, look it up in the Oxford Rhyming Dictionary!

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