Has anyone come across any really good rhyming dictionaries? If so, what makes it worth having/bookmarking? (eg. completeness/ease of use/absence of really sketchy suggestions)
9 Answers
You just type in a word, then select one of the following. Then you have a full list of things to use!
- Rhymes
- Near Rhymes
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Definition
- Related words
- Similar sounding
- Homophones
- Match consonants only
- Match these letters
- Check spelling of
- a word Search for pictures
- Search in Shakespeare
- Search for quotes
Webster's New World Rhyming Dictionary: Clement Wood's Updated
This is the rhyming dictionary I turn to first. It's an update to Clement Wood's classic 1943 reference. The phonetic distribution of words took me a while to learn, but it's a great, fast system once you get a feel for it. My only complaint about this update is that it's too large to fit in a guitar case. (I'm comparing it to my paperback of the original Clement Wood.)
Part I of this book is the rhyming dictionary itself. Part II is titled "Guidelines for Effective Rhyme", and the first chapter is the closest I've seen to an Elements of Style for poets and lyricists. Later chapters are a little dry, but they covers the history of rhyme forms, and definitions of stanza forms. Clement Wood could have learned to "omit needless words" here, but it is a good reference.
The Song-Writer's Rhyming Dictionary, by Sammy Cahn
Out of print, worth looking for. The introduction alone, an essay by the author about the process of lyric writing, is worth the purchase price. The dictionary itself feels like it was hand=picked, and I suspect it was whittled down from a longer list.
I see someone recommends Rhymezone. I've been using it since my copy of Wood's fell apart and it's no substitute: it has multipe repetitions, vast numbers of words that sound as though they were invented by a desperate rhyming dictionary editor, and their idea of what rhymes with what is plain weird. In what variety of English does "what" rhyme with "butt"? It's ugly to look at too.
http://www.rhymedesk.com is quite good. It has more extensive list of near rhymes than on other sites. Also you can conveniently write your texts and search for words on the same page.
WikiRhymer --- operated by songwriter and it's user-editable. It has pure rhymes, end rhymes, near rhymes, rhyming phrases.
I forget the name of the book I have but it is by Rosalind Fergusson. It would be unbeatable. I am not at home at present so I can't check but it has "Rhyming" in the name. I have seen no better and I am sure one would not exist. I think it is by Penguin. Every word is exact and there are no "near rhymes" which is a waste of time anyway.