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Full rhyme

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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 perfect rhyme in which both the stressed vowel and all following consonant sounds match exactly (e.g., “light” / “bright”).

Detailed Definition
Full rhyme, also called perfect or exact rhyme, occurs when the final stressed vowel and all subsequent sounds of two or more words are identical (e.g., “light”/“bright”), creating sonic harmony and structural emphasis; it is foundational to traditional forms like the sonnet, heroic couplet, and ballad stanza.
Example
Example in poetry:
Full rhyme appears in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18: “day / May”; In Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: “ear / near”; In Emily Dickinson: “hope / rope” (though often slant, she uses full rhyme too); In W.B. Yeats’ “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”: “bee / tree / me”; In Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool”: “school / cool / rule”.
Additional Notes
Full rhyme (or perfect rhyme) matches final stressed vowels and all following sounds (e.g., “light”/“bright”); provides sonic closure and musicality—contrasts with slant, eye, or half-rhyme used for subtler effects.
Also Known As
Perfect rhyme exact rhyme true rhyme identical terminal sounds equal rhyme
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