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Silent 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 suggested by structure or expectation but left unsounded

Detailed Definition
Silent rhyme occurs when words that appear dissimilar in spelling suggest a phonetic or etymological kinship that creates an implied or conceptual rhyme without actual sonic correspondence; this technique relies on the reader’s linguistic knowledge or imagination to perceive connections beyond auditory similarity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Rhyme implied by near-sound but not exact: "prove"/"love" in Herbert; "stone"/"frown" in Dickinson; "light"/"night" with altered vowel quality; Internal near-rhymes like "fleet"/"feet" where consonants match but vowels differ subtly
Additional Notes
Silent rhyme is a term for the visual appearance of a rhyme on the page, where the words look similar but are pronounced differently and thus do not sound alike (e.g., cough and bough); this is related to eye rhyme or sight rhyme.
Also Known As
Silent echo muted rhyme hushed rhyme Aposiopetic rhyme Dumb crambo Mind rhyme
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