imperfect rhyme

Almost matching sounds

Imperfect rhyme is rhyme where sounds are similar but not identical, unlike perfect rhymes where vowels and final consonants match exactly (cat/hat).

Types include slant rhyme, where vowels or consonants differ slightly (love/move, cat/bed), and consonance, where consonants match but vowels don't (milk/walk).

Also called near rhyme, half rhyme, or slant rhyme.

Emily Dickinson made imperfect rhyme a signature element of her poetry.

Related

consonance · sprung rhythm · poetry · poetic license · analogy · sound alike · enjambment · scansion · caesura · heroic couplet · poetic meter · villanelle · Emily Dickinson · slip · lyricism · Wilfred Owen · stumble · phoneme

Opposites
phonetic exactness in rhyme

imperfect rhymeperfect rhyme

Identical stressed syllable endings

exact rhyme

presence vs. absence of rhyme

imperfect rhymefree verse

Poetry without fixed structure

blank verse · prose

Family

imperfect, rhyme, perfect, imperfection, imperfectly, perfection, perfectly, rhymes, rhymed

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Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G