Home › Glossary › Letter D

Demirhyme

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A type of half-rhyme or slant rhyme where words share only minimal phonetic overlap, often used for subtle dissonance or modernist effect.

Detailed Definition
Demirhyme is a half-rhyme or imperfect rhyme where only consonants match (consonance) or only vowels align (assonance), creating subtle sonic linkage without full phonetic correspondence; it offers flexibility in modern verse while preserving musical texture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Rhyme on final consonant only: “cat” / “cut”; “light” / “late”; Common in slant rhyme; Emily Dickinson’s “soul” / “all” as demirhyme
Additional Notes
Partial or imperfect rhyme where only some phonetic elements correspond. Related to slant rhyme, assonance, consonance. Creates subtle sound patterns less predictable than perfect rhyme. Study alongside eye rhyme.
Also Known As
weak rhyme distant rhyme
Skip to main content