What Are The Best Digital Tools And Rhyming Dictionaries For Writing?
contributed by Kenney Meyers
Rhyming words are fun, but some words will leave you tongue-tied trying to find a suitable partner.
Anyone who has ever dabbled in poetry will tell you that meter is a refined art that requires the poet to have a comprehensive understanding of how the rhythmic structure of words, sentences, and verses ebb and flow.
A rookie mistake when dealing with rhyming words is assuming that every word has to be an exact match. A close match is often sufficient to convince the ear that it rhymes without breaking the rhythm of the verse of rhyme. These 12 rhyming dictionaries and digital tools are designed specifically to help you find rhyming words, synonyms, and other forms of creative wordplay.
(If you’re looking for a physical rhyming dictionary, we recommend The Complete Rhyming Dictionary [affiliate link]).
12 Of The Best Digital Tools And Rhyming Dictionaries For Writing
1. Rhyme Zone
It’s very frustrating to discover that a word does not have an exact rhyme. However, with Rhyme Zone, you may just find the next best thing. The website’s search engine will look for an exact match, but if it doesn’t find one it will return a list of similar-sounding words. You can define your search in a number of ways, including near rhymes, similar-sounding words, or related words. For more relevant listings, you can also organize the search results by both number of syllables and letters.
2. Rhymer
As well as providing a powerful rhyming search engine, Rhymer is full of great tips and instructions on constructing rhymes. The website returns results based on rhyming syllables. This is particularly useful if you are a poet, as it allows you to construct verses that flow naturally without stretching to make the words match the meter.
3. Rhyme Brain
This is a multi-lingual rhyming site that includes French, German, English and Spanish, among other languages. The interface couldn’t be simpler to use; you type the word you wish to rhyme into the search bar and the results are posted in tables on the same page. Rhyme Brain also has an extensive blog on rhyming words and alliteration that you can spend hours browsing through.
4. Dillfrog
Search for rhyming words by syllable.
5. WikiRhymer
In keeping with other Wiki-sites, this rhyming search engine is community-based. The interface has a number of search parameters to choose from, and there is also a discussion forum where you can ask questions if you’re having trouble with a particular word. This provides a very beneficial platform for poets and song-writers to share ideas.
6. Word Central
Merriam-Webster is the developer of Word Central so you shouldn’t be at all surprised to find that the site has a huge database of rhyming words. What’s more, at Word Central you can create your own dictionary along with word definitions. So if you can’t find a word that rhymes the way you’d like, you can just invent one instead!
7. Rhymes & Chimes
As well as providing rhyming words, Rhymes and Chimes has search parameters for translations, phrases, quotes, and related products. Results are also broken down by the number of syllables in ascending order from one up to five.
8. Reading Rockets
This educational site will take you all the way from the basics to the comprehensive elements of rhyming and wordplay. There’s also a selection of printable material available on Reading Rockets, as well as games and activities you can use on the site.
9. Your Dictionary
Create your own worksheets and browse through lists of rhyming activities in Your Dictionary’s huge archives. The site is extremely well organized, making it easy to navigate and find what you need with minimal hassle.
10. Kids Front
The questions and answers structure of Kids Front is a progressive way of learning rhyming structures. Although the site is obviously aimed at teaching kids, the exercises are suitable for adults, too.
11. What rhymes with?
There is nothing complicated or flashy about this site; you simply type a word into the search engine and it finds you rhyming words. However, the results are returned in an easy to read format and each word links to its own related words.
12. Enchanted Learning
Finding rhymes the easy way is one thing; learning to use them on your own is quite another. Enchanted Learning provides endless hours of fun with rhyming games and activities. There is a $20 per year subscription charge, which gives you full access to all the downloadable content from the site. However, there is also a large amount of content that is free of charge and doesn’t require a subscription.
Image attribution flickr user clipartistinfo