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Perfect 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

Rhyme in which the stressed vowel sounds and all following sounds are identical

Detailed Definition
Perfect rhyme, synonymous with exact rhyme, occurs when the final accented vowel and all succeeding sounds of two words match precisely (e.g., “moon” and “June”), creating sonic unity that enhances musicality, memorability, and formal cohesion in lyrical and narrative verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Light” and “bright” in nursery rhymes show perfect rhyme; Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 uses perfect rhyme: “temperate” and “date”; Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers” uses perfect rhyme: “soul” and “whole”; Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” uses perfect rhyme: “beat” and “street.”
Additional Notes
Perfect rhyme matches final stressed vowel and all subsequent sounds (e.g., “cat/hat”); foundational in traditional forms; differs from eye rhyme (spelling match only) and slant rhyme (partial sound match); use sparingly in modern poetry to avoid sing-song effect.
Also Known As
Exact rhyme Full correspondence Identical terminal sound Perfect sonic match equal rhyme True rhyme Full rhyme
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