Perfect rhyme (also calledfull rhyme,exact rhyme,[1] ortrue rhyme) is a form ofrhyme between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions:[2][3]
Word pairs that satisfy the first condition but not the second (such as the aforementionedleave andbelieve) are technicallyidentities (also known asidentical rhymes oridenticals).Homophones, being words of different meaning but identical pronunciation, are an example of identical rhyme.[3]
Half rhyme orimperfect rhyme, sometimes calledbastard rhyme,near-rhyme,lazy rhyme, orslant rhyme, is a type ofrhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds. In most instances, the vowel segments are different and the consonants are identical or vice versa. This type of rhyme is also called approximate rhyme, inexact rhyme, imperfect rhyme (in contrast to perfect rhyme), off rhyme, analyzed rhyme, suspended rhyme, or sprung rhyme.[6][7][8][9]
In the 1977 song "God Save the Queen" by theEnglish punk rock band theSex Pistols, the authors create a rhyme with the lines "God save thequeen" and "thefascistregime".[10]
The 1979 song "Up the Junction" by the Englishnew wave bandSqueeze makes extensive use of half-rhyme. The opening verse, for example:
I never thought it wouldhappen
With me and a girl fromClapham
Out on the windycommon
That night I ain'tforgotten
Half rhyme is often used, along withassonance, inrap music. That can be used to avoid rhymingclichés (e.g., rhymingknowledge withcollege) or obvious rhymes and can give the writer greater freedom and flexibility in forming lines ofverse. Additionally, some wordshave no perfect rhyme in English, necessitating the use of slant rhyme.[11] The use of half rhyme may also enable the construction of longermultisyllabic rhymes than is otherwise possible.[12]
In the following lines from the song "N.Y. State of Mind" by the rapperNas, the author uses half rhyme in a complexcross rhyme pattern:
And beprosperous, though we livedangerous
Cops could just arrest me,blamin' us, we're held likehostages
The children's nursery rhymeThis Little Piggy displays an unconventional (in most modern dialects) slant rhyme.Home is rhymed withnone. This is because in Early modern English these words often rhymed. In some dialects ofNorthern English English, these still rhyme.
This little piggy stayed (at)home...this little piggy hadnone.
InThe Hives' song "Dead Quote Olympics", the singerHowlin' Pelle Almqvist rhymesidea withlibrary:[13][14]
This time you really got something, it's such a cleveridea
But it doesn't mean it's good because you found it at thelibra-ri-a