A perfect rhyme — also called a full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme — is a rhyme in which the later part of the word or phrase is identical sounding to that of another.
The following conditions are required for a rhyme to be perfect:
- The vowel sound in both words must be identical. — e.g. "sky" and high"
- The articulation that precedes the vowel sound must differ. "leave" and "believe" is an imperfect rhyme, whereas "green" and "spleen" are perfect rhymes.
Word pairs that satisfy the first condition but not the second (such as the aforementioned "leave" and "believe") are technically identities (also known as identical rhymes or identicals). Homophones are sometimes classified as identical rhymes, though the classification isn't entirely accurate.
Read more about Perfect Rhyme: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words perfect and/or rhyme:
“I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgement, will probably for ever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I ... am in favour of the race to which I belong having the superior position.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I’ll rhyme you so eight years together, dinners and suppers
and sleeping-hours excepted.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)