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Weak rhyme

Sound
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

An approximate or imperfect rhyme with minimal phonetic correspondence

Detailed Definition
Weak rhyme: Sonic correspondence that is partial, imperfect, or less emphatic than full rhyme, including near-rhymes, slant rhymes, or assonantal connections. Weak rhyme creates subtle acoustic relationships that suggest connection without the definitive closure of perfect rhyme, allowing for more flexible sound patterning and often contributing to understated or tentative tonal effects.
Example
Example in poetry:
Weak rhyme appears in Emily Dickinson’s slant rhymes: “hope / rope”; In W.B. Yeats: “artifice / gyre”; In Gwendolyn Brooks: “school / cool”; In contemporary poet Terrance Hayes; In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”: “Jew / through”.
Additional Notes
Rhyme that is imperfect, approximate, or attenuated, creating softer connections. Also called slant rhyme or near rhyme - study examples in modern poetry.
Also Known As
Slant rhyme Near rhyme Imperfect rhyme Half rhyme Demirhyme Rime pauvre
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