There are some words in the English language that famously can’t be rhymed with any other words. These are called refractory rhymes. Some of the words most commonly thought to be without any rhyming partners include: orange, purple, silver, month and circle. But are all these words really without a rhyming friend?

There are actually some obscure words in the English language that do rhyme with these troublesome nouns and adjectives. Read on to find out more about perfect rhymes and discover which crafty words rhyme with the seemingly impossible orange, purple, silver and month.

 

Perfect Rhymes

When we hear a word that rhymes with another word, this is usually due to a phenomenon called perfect rhyme. For words to be a perfect rhyme, the sounds must match exactly from the first stressed vowel to the end of the word. the consonant before the stressed vowel should also be different.

Examples of perfect rhymes: rough and tough, bean and green, blunder and plunder, gather and lather, batter and scatter, bold and cold, mean and seen, like and bike, sky and high, garden and pardon.

 

Slant Rhymes

If a word almost rhymes with another but not quite well enough to be a perfect rhyme, it is called a slant rhyme. This can be when the stressed syllables of the ending consonants match, but not the preceding vowels. These can also be called oblique rhymes, near rhymes, lazy rhymes or imperfect rhymes.

Examples of slant rhymes include: rod and red, hold and bald, and prosperous and dangerous. None of these couplets rhyme perfectly, but the consonance is strong in the ending of the words, so they have a similarity that can be pleasing to the ear. This effect is often used in poetry.

Another way of using slant rhymes is to use letters with a similar sound in the middle of words. For example in the words ‘wonder’ and ‘hunter’ the ‘d’ sound and the ‘t’ sound are similar, but not a perfect match.

Rhymes and Accents

Of course, a speaker’s accent can change the rhyme completely. For example, if speaking in an American accent a word might rhyme, but with a British accent it might not – and vice versa. Even speakers from the same country might pronounce words totally differently, depending on where they come from and their own personal preferences.

For example, Americans generally pronounce ‘privacy’ so the ‘priv’ rhymes with ‘hive’. In contract, British people pronounce ‘privacy’ so the ‘priv’ rhymes with ‘give’. So the word ‘privacy’ would have a slant rhyme with ‘piracy’ in American English but not in British English.

 

Syllables and Rhyme

Most rhyming words are one syllable or two syllables in length. The majority of words of three syllables or more with the stress on the third or fourth from last syllable do not have any rhyming partners. For example: animal, obvious, dangerous, necessary and momentary.

It is quite rare to find a one-syllable word that has no rhyming partners, but they do exist. Some examples of one-syllable refractory words are: eighth, breadth, bulb, wolf, scarce, pierced, false, wounds, glimpsed and warmth.

 

Refractory Rhymes

There are a few English words that are famous as refractory rhymes, that is, famous for not rhyming with any other words. Orange and purple are perhaps the most commonly discussed, however, both of these two words do have obscure rhyming partners, which we will explore in a moment.

Other famous refractory rhymes include silver, month and circle. However, all of these have rhyming partners, although month is the most difficult to rhyme. Purple even has two rhyming partner words.

What Rhymes with Orange?

Although most of us think no word rhymes with orange, this isn’t true. Which word rhymes with orange? Sporange, of course!

Orange rhymes with sporange, which is an obscure botanical term for a part of a fern or similar plant to describe where the spores are stored. Sporange is more commonly called sporangium by botonists, so sprorange is a rare alternative way to describe this particular plant part. It’s no wonder most people think that orange is a refractory rhyme!

Another fun potential rhyming phrase for orange is ‘door hinge’, which can work if the word is spoken in a particular accent so that is sounds like ‘doringe’. This type of accent says ‘forehead’ to sound like ‘forr-ed’, so the ‘fore’ sound in forehead and the ‘door’ sound in ‘door hinge’ both shorten their ‘o’ to sound like the ‘o’ in ‘orange’.

What Rhymes with Purple?

Another refractory rhyme is purple – or is it? Well no, because purple actually rhymes with two other words. What rhymes with purple? Hirple and curple, obviously!

Purple rhymes with hirple, which means to walk with a limp or to hobble. Hirple is a Scottish word that most people have never heard of, so again this is why we think that the word purple has no rhyming partner. Another obscure word that rhymes with purple is curple, which describes the hind quarters of a horse or donkey.

Interestingly, purple has a slant rhyme with circle, another word on the refractory rhyme  list, which we shall come to in a moment…

What Rhymes with Silver?

Silver rhymes with chilver, which is a female lamb or a ewe lamb. Although farmers will be aware of this term, a chilver is not a word in common use for most English speakers, so silver is often thought of as having no rhyming partner.

What Rhymes with Circle?

It isn’t immediately clear what words rhyme with circle because this seems to be another obvious refractory rhyme. But wait! Circle does have a rhyme and it is just as obscure as the others in this list.

Circle rhymes with hurkle, which is the act of pulling in one’s limbs, usually due to feeling pain or being cold. It is unclear from where this obscure word originates, but some linguists think it is related to the Scottish hirple (to limp or hobble) or even the Dutch hurken (to squat).

What Rhymes with Month?

Month is the hardest word from this list to force into a rhyme – but with effort it can be done! Mathematicians might have guessed this one already, but it does need the right accent to pull it off.

Month rhymes with oneth. ‘Oneth’ comes from the mathematical term ‘n+1th’, such as thousand and oneth. this needs to be said in the right accent using an ‘uh’ sound rather than an ‘oh’ sound. Remember, month is pronounced ‘munth’, so ‘one’ and therefore ‘oneth’ also need to be pronounced as ‘wun’ and ‘wunth’ (not ‘wan’ and ‘wanth’).

This ‘month and oneth’ rhyme is the most difficult to explain and this tricky word is certainly the closest to a refractory rhyme from this list.

 

Share your thoughts

What other words can you think of that don’t have a rhyming partner?

Are there any more words that rhyme perfectly with orange, purple, silver or month?

Do you have any favourite rhyming words?

Are you unsure about any of our rhyming words? Are they too obscure to even count as rhymes?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!