Perfect rhyme (also called full rhyme, exact rhyme, [1] or true rhyme) is a form of rhyme between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions: [2] [3]
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, being words of different meaning but identical pronunciation, are an example of identical rhyme. [3]
Half rhyme or imperfect rhyme, sometimes called bastard rhyme, near-rhyme, lazy rhyme, or slant rhyme, is a type of rhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds. In most instances, the vowel segments are different and the consonants are identical or vice versa. This type of rhyme is also called approximate rhyme, inexact rhyme, imperfect rhyme (in contrast to perfect rhyme), off rhyme, analyzed rhyme, suspended rhyme, or sprung rhyme. [6] [7] [8] [9]
In the 1977 song "God Save the Queen" by the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols, the authors create a rhyme with the lines "God save the queen " and "the fascist regime". [10]
The 1979 song "Up the Junction" by the English new wave band Squeeze makes extensive use of half-rhyme. The opening verse, for example:
I never thought it would happen
With me and a girl from Clapham
Out on the windy common
That night I ain't forgotten
Half rhyme is often used, along with assonance, in rap music. That can be used to avoid rhyming clichés (e.g., rhyming knowledge with college) or obvious rhymes and can give the writer greater freedom and flexibility in forming lines of verse. Additionally, some words have no perfect rhyme in English, necessitating the use of slant rhyme. [11] The use of half rhyme may also enable the construction of longer multisyllabic rhymes than is otherwise possible. [12]
In the following lines from the song "N.Y. State of Mind" by the rapper Nas, the author uses half rhyme in a complex cross rhyme pattern:
And be prosperous, though we live dangerous
Cops could just arrest me, blamin' us, we're held like hostages
The children's nursery rhyme This Little Piggy displays an unconventional (in most modern dialects) slant rhyme. Home is rhymed with none. This is because in Early modern English these words often rhymed. In some dialects of Northern English English, these still rhyme.
This little piggy stayed (at) home...this little piggy had none.
In The Hives' song "Dead Quote Olympics", the singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist rhymes idea with library: [13] [14]
This time you really got something, it's such a clever idea
But it doesn't mean it's good because you found it at the libra-ri-a