List of closed pairs of English rhyming words

This page has a list of closed pairs of English rhyming words—in each pair, both words rhyme with each other and only with each other.

Monosyllabic pairs

 * bairn, cairn
 * boosts, roosts
 * coaxed, hoaxed
 * dwarfed, morphed
 * how've, Lauv
 * lounge, scrounge
 * lymph, nymph
 * palped, scalped
 * salve, valve
 * smooth, soothe

Trochaic pairs
In a trochaic pair, each word is a trochee, with the first syllable stressed and the second syllable unstressed.


 * agile, fragile
 * anguish, languish
 * ankle, rankle
 * anther, panther
 * argent, sergeant
 * ascot, mascot
 * audit, plaudit
 * austral, claustral
 * awful, lawful
 * badger, cadger
 * bailiff, caliph
 * bantam, phantom
 * bargain, jargon
 * Bernard, gurnard
 * beverage, leverage
 * biggin, piggin
 * biplane, triplane
 * birchen, urchin
 * bittern, cittern
 * bodice, goddess
 * bonnet, sonnet
 * briefly, chiefly
 * booger, sugar
 * broadcast, podcast
 * bullet, pullet
 * buskin, Ruskin
 * buttock, futtock
 * cadre, padre
 * cartridge, partridge
 * cavern, tavern
 * central, ventral
 * cheaply, deeply
 * cherish, perish
 * Christmas, isthmus
 * churlish, girlish
 * clothing, loathing
 * coastal, postal
 * cockney, knock-knee
 * coffee, toffee
 * collet, wallet
 * colored, dullard
 * coltish, doltish
 * combat, wombat
 * cornet, hornet
 * corpus, porpoise
 * corset, Dorset
 * cortex, vortex
 * Cossacks, Trossachs


 * coven, oven
 * cowboy, ploughboy
 * crackpot, jackpot
 * curlew, purlieu
 * custom, frustum
 * darken, hearken
 * darkling, sparkling
 * deafest, prefaced
 * detail, retail
 * dictum, victim
 * discal, fiscal
 * dockside, oxide
 * doesn't, wasn't
 * doorway, Norway
 * dovetail, love-tale
 * druid, fluid
 * emu, seamew
 * errand, gerund
 * exile, flexile
 * extant, sextant
 * eyebrow, highbrow
 * faithful, scatheful
 * farness, harness
 * fescue, rescue
 * figment, pigment
 * finis, Guinness
 * Finland, inland
 * fitness, witness
 * fixture, mixture
 * flagship, hagship
 * flourish, nourish
 * fountain, mountain
 * frequence, sequence
 * fustic, rustic
 * gallant, talent
 * ghostess, hostess
 * ghostly, mostly
 * gibbon, ribbon
 * grapnel, shrapnel
 * gremlin, Kremlin
 * gusset, russet
 * harpist, sharpest
 * hazard, mazzard
 * Hendon, tendon
 * highland, island
 * hireling, squireling
 * hotness, squatness


 * image, scrimmage
 * inkhorn, stinkhorn
 * juncture, puncture
 * junket, plunket
 * keyboard, seaboard
 * kiddish, Yiddish
 * kidney, Sidney
 * lappet, tappet
 * launder, maunder
 * layoff, playoff
 * leeward, seaward
 * lengthen, strengthen
 * lilacs, smilax
 * livid, vivid
 * lonely, only
 * lordship, wardship
 * loudly, proudly
 * loyal, royal
 * luncheon, truncheon
 * magnate, stagnate
 * menu, venue
 * milder, wilder
 * mileage, silage
 * minnow, winnow
 * modus, nodus
 * mopish, Popish
 * mournful, scornful
 * mufti, tufty
 * nescience, prescience
 * nonage, Swanage
 * nostrum, rostrum
 * nuisance, usance
 * ogress, progress
 * pallor, valor
 * parsley, sparsely
 * peevish, thievish
 * person, worsen
 * pinto, Shinto
 * rabid, tabid
 * rhymeless, timeless
 * ripened, stipend
 * ripplet, triplet
 * ruttish, sluttish
 * Scotsman, yachtsman
 * Scottish, sottish
 * sextile, textile
 * siphon, hyphen
 * spoonful, tuneful
 * tasteful, wasteful
 * torpor, warper
 * tumbril, umbril

Trochaic-or-iambic pairs
In an trochaic-or-iambic pair, each word can be either a trochee (stressed on the first syllable) or an iamb (stressed on the second syllable).
 * contract, entr'acte
 * discount, miscount
 * hereby, nearby
 * sunlit, unlit
 * thereby, whereby
 * therein, wherein
 * thereof, whereof
 * therewith, wherewith

Iambic pairs
In an iambic pair, each word is an iamb and has the first syllable unstressed and the second syllable stressed.
 * barrage, garage
 * chorale, morale
 * eclipsed, ellipsed
 * gyrate, irate
 * henceforth, thenceforth
 * Koran, Oran
 * purvey, survey

Dactylic pairs
In a dactylic pair, each word is a dactyl and has the first syllable stressed and the second and third syllables unstressed.
 * agitate, sagittate
 * analyst, panellist
 * article, particle
 * bandmaster, grandmaster
 * banister, canister
 * bingeworthy, cringeworthy
 * bonytail, ponytail
 * brotherhood, motherhood
 * charlatan, tarlatan
 * collier, jollier
 * copulate, populate
 * creepier, sleepier
 * cuneiform, uniform
 * devious, previous
 * Everest, cleverest
 * fealty, realty
 * fortify, mortify
 * gradient, radiant
 * javelin, ravelin
 * jawbreaker, lawbreaker
 * jitterbug, litterbug
 * Kodiak, zodiac
 * lexicon, Mexican
 * loyalty, royalty
 * manhandle, panhandle
 * medium, tedium
 * mellophone, telephone
 * minister, sinister
 * modulate, nodulate
 * mutiny, scrutiny
 * president, resident
 * serpentine, turpentine (in RP, and some British English dialects)

Amphibrachic pairs
In an amphibrachic pair, each word is an amphibrach and has the second syllable stressed and the first and third syllables unstressed.
 * attainder, remainder
 * autumnal, columnal
 * concoction, decoction (In GA, these rhyme with auction; there is also the YouTube slang word obnoxion, meaning something that is obnoxious.)
 * distinguish, extinguish
 * pneumatic, rheumatic

Anapestic pairs
In an anapestic pair, each word is an anapest and has the first and second syllables unstressed and the third syllable stressed.

At this time, no anapestic pairs have been found. The pair "uneclipsed, unellipsed" is disqualified because uneclipsed also rhymes with ellipsed, and because unellipsed also rhymes with eclipsed.

Tetrasyllabic pairs

 * beautifully, dutifully
 * copulated, populated
 * culminated, fulminated
 * deifying, reifying
 * delegated, relegated
 * generated, venerated
 * lacerated, macerated
 * lecherously, treacherously

Pentasyllabic pairs

 * constabulary, vocabulary

Asymmetric pairs
In an asymmetric pair, the words differ in number of syllables. Each pair is in a subsection according to the respective numbers of syllables in the words when they are in alphabetical order.

Disyllabic-and-trisyllabic pairs

 * cerement, endearment
 * crucial, fiducial
 * digest (noun), obligest

Disyllabic-and-tetrasyllabic pairs

 * thinnest, violinist (although Bentley's Miscellany does contain the line "The Dublin Stout out-Guinnessed Guinness" )

Trisyllabic-and-disyllabic pairs

 * combustion, fustian
 * diminished, finished
 * eleventh, seventh

Trisyllabic-and-tetrasyllabic pairs

 * bestial, celestial
 * bigotry, obligatory
 * brilliant, resilient
 * cordial, primordial
 * fricative, indicative

Tetrasyllabic-and-trisyllabic pairs

 * alluvial, pluvial
 * behaviour, saviour
 * commodity, oddity (In GA, these rhyme with Alaudidae)
 * emergency, urgency
 * habitual, ritual
 * sarrusophone, sousaphone

Pentasyllabic-and-tetrasyllabic pairs

 * annihilated, violated
 * illuminated, ruminated