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Words that rhyme with focus — 173 rhymes by quality | Rhyme Land
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the rhymes and the songs that used them

Words that rhyme withfocus

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 OW coda K
3
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
pocus1crocuslocus
mosaic rhyme
broke usspoke uswoke usstroke uschoke uscloak us
5
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
bogus1notice4Otis2lotus1opus
8
What it is
  1. The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
  2. The sounds after the vowels are identical, with one extra consonant on one side.
  3. The syllables begin differently.
How it feels
  1. Perfect
  2. Family
  3. Additive / Subtractive
  4. Assonance
  5. Consonance
resolvedunresolved
Example

love / loved — extra D on one side

Source
Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)
2 syllables
hopeless2boldnesscoldnesshostessogresspoulticesmokeless
3 syllables
remoteness
2
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
loisloess
155
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
homeless2bonus2jonasMoses1boneless1closeness1Clovis1colas1bolusCronusonusslownesssoullesswholenessbroken31spoken9smoking8local1joking5poker5choking1loco4joker1loca1locusts2stoker1brokens1broker1coco1poking1smoker1smokers1soakers1tokens1vocal1woken1brokered1brokers1broking
3 syllables
ferocious1hypnosis1osmosis1psychosis1atrociouscirrhosisfibrosismeiosisnecrosisnephrosisneurosisprecociousprognosissclerosisstenosisthrombosisunspoken5rococo2unbroken2heartbroken1kyoko1nokia1sunoco1backstrokingbrokeragebrokering1convokingevokinghousebroken
4 syllables
diagnosis1acidosisasbestosisgladiolusheterosissymbiosismediocre1karaoke1brokeragescariocacariocas
5 syllables
apotheosiskeratoconustuberculosis
6 syllables
actinomycosisatherosclerosisendometriosisosteoporosis
7 syllables
arteriosclerosisneurofibromatosis
13
What it is
  1. The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
  2. The sounds after the vowels (if any) are identical.
  3. The syllables begin the same — repetition, not a rhyme.
How it feels

Off the rhyme scale — identity is repetition, not resolution. Shown so you can spot it, not reach for it.

Example

fuse / confuse — both stressed syllables are 'fuse'

Source
Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)
1 syllable
folk4
2 syllables
focused1focalfocussedtownsfolk
3 syllables
focuses8focusing8refocusrefocusedunfocusedcountryfolk
4 syllables
refocusesrefocusing

“focus” at line end — from real songs

Makes it hard to maintain focusThe seeds that sow, get devoured by the same locusts
— Erykah Badu, “Liberation” · rhymes focus / locusts
Hip hip hooray, hocus pocusBut when you're the guy pulling focus
— Aimee Mann, “Patient Zero” · rhymes focus / pocus
The jig is up, I seen you from a mile away losin' focusKazaam is sad thrills, your gimmick is mediocre
— Kendrick Lamar, “How Much a Dollar Cost” · rhymes focus / mediocre

How to read the 173 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 3
Same stressed vowel, same sounds after it, different beginning. Full resolution — the strongest closure a rhyme can give a line.
Family rhyme 5
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.
Additive 8
Same vowel, but one word carries an extra consonant after the shared ending. The added sound softens the landing slightly.
Subtractive 2
Same vowel, but one word stops a consonant early. A slightly clipped, softer resolution than perfect rhyme.
Assonance 155
Only the stressed vowel matches; the consonants after it are unrelated. Loose and open — useful when a section should stay unresolved.
Identity 13
The whole stressed syllable repeats, beginning included. That's repetition, not rhyme — the line echoes instead of resolving.