What Is a Rhyme?

What You'll Learn

• A rhyme happens when two or more words end with the same sound
• Rhymes are about SOUND, not spelling
• Rhymes make language fun, musical, and easy to remember
• Rhymes are used in poems, songs, nursery rhymes, and chants
• Near rhymes have similar but not exactly matching ending sounds

Words to Know

Rhyme

Words that end with the same sound

"'Cat' and 'hat' rhyme."

Sound

What you hear when a word is spoken

"Rhymes depend on ending sound."

Poem

Writing that often uses rhyme and rhythm

"She wrote a funny poem."

Nursery rhyme

A short rhyming song or poem for kids

"'Humpty Dumpty' is a nursery rhyme."

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in the final stressed syllables of two or more words

  Source: Merriam-Webster

• Rhyme is primarily a phonological (sound) phenomenon, not an orthographic (spelling) one

  Source: Oxford English Grammar

• Rhymes occur in poetry, songs, nursery rhymes, chants, and advertising jingles

  Source: Poetry Foundation

• Rhyme supports memory and language development in early readers

  Source: International Literacy Association

• End rhymes match the final sound of lines; internal rhymes occur within a single line

  Source: LiteraryTerms.net

• Slant or near rhymes use similar but not identical ending sounds

  Source: Poetry Foundation