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Fused 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 rhyme that uses compound words with tightly fused elements (e.g., “moonlight” / “sunlight”) to create compact, resonant sonic links.

Detailed Definition
Fused rhyme occurs when two words rhyme not through identical end sounds but through overlapping or slant-rhymed phonemes that create a subtle, integrated sonic echo; it expands rhyming possibilities while maintaining musical cohesion in modern or experimental verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Raven,” Poe fuses “Lenore” and “nevermore” through fused rhyme; Emily Dickinson’s slant rhymes (“room”/“storm”) are fused rhyme; Contemporary poet Kay Ryan uses fused rhyme for intellectual tension; Fused rhyme appears in Celtic half-rhyme traditions; In hip-hop, fused rhyme includes assonance and consonance blends.
Additional Notes
Fused rhyme: A very close or immediate rhyme, such as a rhyme within a single line (internal rhyme) or between the last word of one line and the first word of the next; emphasizes the sonic connection.
Also Known As
Merged rhyme blended rhyme fused rhyme scheme Agglutinative rhyme
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