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Words that rhyme with darkness — 85 rhymes by quality | Rhyme Land
RhymeLand

the rhymes and the songs that used them

Words that rhyme withdarkness

feminine
Masculine

Ends on a stressed syllable — a one-syllable rhyme, or a multisyllable word whose primary stress lands last. The rhyme hits the final beat, the way most rhymes in songs do.

Examples

love · dove · today · believe · forgot

Feminine this word

Ends with an unstressed syllable trailing the stressed one — always at least two syllables. The rhyme lands a beat earlier and trails off softly.

Examples

river · mother · follow · breaking · mountain

Masculine and feminine endings rarely sing together (the rhyme lands on a different beat), so they're kept apart here.

 vowel AA coda R·K·N
1
What it is
  1. The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
  2. The sounds after the vowels (if any) are identical.
  3. The syllables begin differently.
How it feels
  1. Perfect
  2. Family
  3. Additive / Subtractive
  4. Assonance
  5. Consonance
resolvedunresolved
Example

cat / hat — same AE vowel, same T ending

Source
Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)
2 syllables
starkness
4
What it is
  1. The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
  2. The sounds after the vowels come from the same phonetic family (e.g. T↔D, P↔B, M↔N).
  3. The syllables begin differently.
How it feels
  1. Perfect
  2. Family
  3. Additive / Subtractive
  4. Assonance
  5. Consonance
resolvedunresolved
Example

cat / pad — AE vowel; T and D are both stops

Family chart
PlosivesFricativesNasals
VoicedbdgvTHzzhjmnng
Unvoicedptkfthsshch

Each column is a family pair — same place + manner, only the voicing differs.

Source
Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)
2 syllables
sharpnesssmartnesstartnesshardness1
22
What it is
  1. The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
  2. The sounds after the vowels are identical, but one side stops one consonant earlier.
  3. The syllables begin differently.
How it feels
  1. Perfect
  2. Family
  3. Additive / Subtractive
  4. Assonance
  5. Consonance
resolvedunresolved
Example

cried / cry — one side missing the final D

Source
Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)
2 syllables
promise5Thomas1marcusgoddess1carcass1argusbodicecaucuscoccusglottisgottis2markkasmartisraucous
3 syllables
adonis1BelarusCaracasferraris
4 syllables
streptococcus
5 syllables
staphylococcus
58
What it is
  1. The syllables' vowel sounds are the same.
  2. The consonants after the vowel are not phonetically related.
  3. The syllables begin differently.
How it feels
  1. Perfect
  2. Family
  3. Additive / Subtractive
  4. Assonance
  5. Consonance
resolvedunresolved
Example

love / dot — both AH, but V and T have nothing in common

Assonance rhymes always have consonants after the vowels, but the consonants cannot be phonetically related.

Source
Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)
2 syllables
office5congress1Wallaceharmless1conscious2cautious1walrus1flawless1softness1thoughtless1heartless1solstice1spotless1auspicebaldnesscalmnessFaustusfondnessgauntnessgodlessharnessharshnesshondas2hospice
3 syllables
unconscious1regardless1accomplice2catharsis1manassas1obnoxious1CialiscolossusCornwallishumongousproboscisself-conscioussubconscioussynopsis
4 syllables
calabasas1Pocahontas1bodhisattvasirregardless

“darkness” at line end — from real songs

Coming out of the darknessComing out of the dark
— Dr. Dog, “Coming Out of the Darkness” · rhymes darkness / dark
Oh, I escaped Aha haI found my way out of the darkness
— Aretha Franklin, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” · rhymes darkness / ha
Make my way through this darknessLost track of how far I've gone
— Bruce Springsteen, “The Rising” · rhymes darkness / gone

How to read the 85 results

Tiers follow Pat Pattison's stability scale — pick the resolution your line needs, not just the closest sound. Bold words are common in lyrics; a struck-through word with a cliché flag is an overworked pair; a vermilion dot counts how often the pair appears at line end in our corpus of real songs.

Perfect rhyme 1
Same stressed vowel, same sounds after it, different beginning. Full resolution — the strongest closure a rhyme can give a line.
Family rhyme 4
The consonants after the vowel are swapped for phonetic siblings — T↔D, M↔N, S↔Z. Nearly as stable as perfect rhyme, with far more word choices.
Subtractive 22
Same vowel, but one word stops a consonant early. A slightly clipped, softer resolution than perfect rhyme.
Assonance 58
Only the stressed vowel matches; the consonants after it are unrelated. Loose and open — useful when a section should stay unresolved.