List of English words without rhymes

The following is a list of English words without rhymes, or refractory rhymes, i.e., a list of words in the English language which rhyme with no other English words in the strict sense that they are pronounced in the same way from the vowel sound of the main stressed syllable onwards. They may not be considered rhymes if they are identical in those syllables—for instance, bay and obey often do not count as rhymes. The list was compiled from the point of view of Received Pronunciation and may differ from lists of words that do not rhyme in other accents or dialects. Multiple-word rhymes, self rhymes (adding a prefix to a word and counting it as a rhyme of itself), and compound words have not been considered.

Definition of perfect rhyme

Following the strict definition of rhyme, a perfect rhyme demands the exact match of all sounds from the last stressed vowel to the end of the word. Therefore, words with the stress far from the end are more likely to have no perfect rhymes. For instance, a perfect rhyme for discomBOBulate would have to rhyme three syllables, -OBulate. There are many words that match most of the sounds from the stressed vowel onwards and so are near rhymes, called slant rhymes. Ovulate, copulate, and populate, for example, vary only slightly in one consonant, and thus provide very usable rhymes for most situations in which a rhyme for discombobulate is desired. However, no other English word has exactly these three final syllables with this stress pattern.^[1] And since in most traditions the stressed syllable should not be identical—the consonant before the stressed vowel should be different—adding a prefix to a word, as be-elbow, does not create a perfect rhyme for it.

Because rhymes reflect pronunciation, words that rhyme in some English dialects may not rhyme in others. A commonplace example of this is the word "of", which had no rhymes in British Received Pronunciation prior to the 19th century, but rhymed with "love" in General American.^[2] In the other direction, iron has no rhyme in General American, but many in RP. Words may also have more than one pronunciation, one with a rhyme, and one without.

Words with obscure perfect rhymes

• arugula /ˈ-uːɡjələ/, rhymes with Bugula, a genus of bryozoan
• chaos /ˈ-eɪ.ɒs/, rhymes with naos, the inner chamber of a temple
• circle /ˈ-ɜrkəl/, rhymes with hurkle, to pull in all one's limbs
• else /ˈ-ɛls/, rhymes with wels, the fish Silurus glanis
• film, -s /ˈ-ɪlm(s)/ rhymes with pilm, Scottish word for dust. The plural films rhymes with Wilms, a kidney tumor.
• fugue, -s /ˈ-juːɡ(z)/, rhymes with jougs, which is rarely found in the singular.^[3]
• kiln /ˈ-ɪln/, rhymes with the surname Milne
• midst /ˈ-ɪdst/, rhymes with didst, archaic for did.
• month /ˈ-ʌnθ/, rhymes with en-plus-oneth (n + 1)th, a mathematical term; also hundred-and-oneth (= hundred-and-first) ^[4]
• music /ˈ-uːzɨk/, rhymes with anchusic, as in anchusic acid, dysgeusic, having a disorder that causes alterations in one's sense of taste and ageusic, lacking a sense of taste
• opus (with a short 0), /ˈ-ɒpəs/, rhymes with Hoppus, a method of measuring timber^[5]
• orange /ˈ-ɒrɨndʒ/, rhymes with Blorenge, a hill in Wales^[6][7]
• pint /ˈ-aɪnt/, rhymes with rynt, a word milkmaids use to get a cow to move
• plankton /ˈ-æŋktən/, rhymes with Yankton (Sioux)
• plinth /ˈ-ɪnθ/, rhymes with synth, colloquial for synthesizer.
• purple /ˈ-ɜrpəl/, rhymes with curple (the hindquarters of a horse or donkey) and hirple (to walk with a limp)^[8]
• rhythm /ˈ-ɪðəm/, rhymes with smitham, fine malt or ore dust^[9]
• silver /ˈ-ɪlvər/, rhymes with chilver, a female lamb^[10]
• siren /ˈ-aɪərən/, rhymes with gyron, a type of triangle in heraldry, and a few technical terms.^[11]
• toilet /ˈ-ɔɪlɨt/, rhymes with oillet, an eyelet
• wasp /ˈ-ɒsp/, rhymes with knosp, a decorative knob
• width /ˈ-ɪdθ/, rhymes with obsolete sidth, meaning length
• woman /ˈ-ʊmən/, rhymes with toman, a Persian coin and military division
• yttrium /ˈ-ɪtriəm/, rhymes with liberum arbitrium, a legal term

Non-rhyming English words

One-syllable rhymes

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Refractory one-syllable rhymes are uncommon; there may be fewer than a hundred in English.^[12] A great many end in a present or historical suffix -th. This list includes a few polysyllabic masculine rhymes such as oblige, which still has one syllable in its rhyming part.

1. angst, -s /ˈ-æŋkst(s)/^[13]
2. breadth, -s /ˈ-ɛdθ(s)/
3. bulb, -s, -ed /ˈ-ʌlb(z/d)/^[14]
4. cusp, -s, -ed /ˈ-ʌsp(s/t)/
5. depth, -s /ˈ-ɛpθ(s)/
6. eighth, -s /ˈ-eɪtθ(s)/^[15]
7. eth, -s /ˈ-ɛð(z)/^[16]
8. fifth, -s, -ed /ˈ-ɪfθ(s/t)/
9. filmed /ˈ-ɪlmd/^{[17] [18][dubious – discuss]}
10. glimpsed /ˈ-ɪmpst/
11. gulf, -s, -ed /ˈ-ʌlf(s/t)/
12. heighth, -s /ˈ-aɪtθ(s)/^[19]
13. karsts /ˈ-ɑrsts/^[20]
14. kirsch /ˈ-ɪərʃ/
15. mulcts /ˈ-ʌlkts/^[21]
16. ninth, -s /ˈ-aɪnθ(s)/
17. oblige, -ed /ˈ-aɪdʒ(d)/
18. sculpts, /ˈ-ʌlpts/
19. sowthed, southed /ˈ-aʊθt/ ?^[22]
20. sixth, -s /ˈ-ɪksθ(s)/
21. twelfth, -s /ˈ-ɛlfθ(s)/
22. whilst /ˈ-aɪlst/
23. wolve, -s, -d /ˈ-ʊlv(z/d)/

Nonce words ending in -ed ('provided with') may produce other rhymeless words, such as be-fezzed (wearing a fez) and aitched (full of H's). However, these are not always certain (rached, a horse with a white streak down its face?).

Two-syllable rhymes

Once the stress shifts to the penultimate syllable, rhymeless words are quite common, perhaps even the norm: there may be more rhymeless words than words with rhymes.^[23] The following words are representative, but there are thousands of others.

• angel
• angry
• anxious
• aspirin (as two or three syllables)
• chimney
• citrus
• comment
• elbow
• empty
• engine
• foible
• hundred(th)
• husband
• liquid
• luggage
• monster
• neutron
• nothing
• olive
• pedant
• penguin
• polka
• problem
• sanction
• sandwich
• secret
• something ^[24]
• transfer (noun)
• vacuum (as two or three syllables)
• zigzag

Three-syllable rhymes

Perhaps the majority of words with antepenultimate stress, such as animal, citizen, comedy, dangerous, and obvious, and with preantepenultimate stress, such as necessary, logarithm, algorithm and sacrificing, have no rhyme.

Notes

1. ^ OED search for pronunciations ending in "*QbjUleIt".
2. ^ In RP, it currently has the rhymes sov, short for sovereign, and Sov, short for Soviet.
3. ^ After /dʒ/ there is no distinction between /uː/ and /juː/. No other word ends in /ˈ-juːɡ/, but droog and for some people Moog end in /ˈ-uːɡ/; whether this is considered a rhyme depends on whether /ˈ-juː/ is considered a diphthong.
4. ^ Also attested in poetry is onety-oneth /ˈwʌntiˈwʌnθ/
5. ^ With the American pronunciation /ˈoʊpəs/ with a long o, opus rhymes with other words, such as Canopus, lagopous, monopus (one-eyed), and slang mopus.
6. ^ Webster's Third gives two pronunciations for sporange, one of which rhymes. However, the OED only has the non-rhyming pronunciation, with the stress on the ange: /spɒˈrændʒ/
7. ^ Held, Carl. Breaking the Orange Rhyme Barrier. Games. Issue 167 (Vol. 25, No. 1). Pp.10-13. February 2001.
8. ^ Held, Carl. Orange, Silver, now Purple (More Lexical Lunacy). Games. Issue 207 (Vol. 29, No. 1). Pp.4-9, 16. February 2005.
9. ^ Rhythmic has no rhymes apart from logarithmic and algorithmic, which are often excluded for having identical syllables.
10. ^ Held, Carl. From Orange to Silver (More Lexical Lunacy). Games. Issue 200 (Vol. 28, No. 4). Pp.4-9, 16. May 2004.
11. ^ For some people, also environ, but this is not RP, in which environ /ˈ-aɪrən/ has no rhyme.
12. ^ REFRACTORY RHYME by Chris Cole reports that there are at least 55, but rhymes have been found for some of them.[1]
13. ^ Phalanxed is not a perfect rhyme for angst because the stress is on the wrong syllable. The alternative American pronunciation /ˈɑːŋkst/ also has no rhymes. Horse Nonsense by R. J. Yeatman includes the word "manxed", cropped off in a way reminiscent of a Manx cat's taillessness.[2]
14. ^ Bulb can be assumed to rhyme with culb, an obsolete word for a glass distillation vessel attested from 1683.
15. ^ A possible rhyme with obsolete weighth, though it is not clear if that is /ˈweitθ/ or a non-rhyming /ˈweiθ/.
16. ^ Rhymes with Castilian Spanish merced 'gift', which is occasionally used in English.
17. ^ The plural films rhymes with Wilms, a kidney tumor.
18. ^ As shown higher on this page, film rhymes with pilm.
19. ^ Colloquial GA heighth is /ˈhaɪtθ/. In RP, highth /ˈhaɪθ/ rhymes with dryth (= drought), rithe, etc., but is obsolete.
20. ^ In rhotic dialects like GA. In RP, this rhymes with fasts.
21. ^ The infinitive mulct rhymes with sulked, bulked, etc.
22. ^ As /ˈsaʊθt/. The verbs sowthed (as in sowthed a tune) and southed (pointed south) are identical and therefore not considered rhymes to each other. Phrases like foul-mouthed /ˈfaʊlmaʊθt/, though close, have the wrong stress to be perfect rhymes, at least in some dialects. Sowths, souths rhyme with mouth's. (Southed but not sowthed is also pronounced /ˈsaʊðd/, which rhymes with mouthed.)
23. ^ Liberman, Mark (8 December 2009). "Rhymes". Language Log. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1946. Retrieved 8 December 2009. 
24. ^ Though of course something rhymes with phrases such as this dumb thing.

External links

• "rhymes with orange"
• definition of "perfect rhyme"
• Slant rhymes for words without perfect rhymes