RhymeLand

the rhymes and the songs that used them

Words that rhyme withforgiveness

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 IH coda V·N

What it is

The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
The sounds after the vowels come from the same phonetic family (e.g. T↔D, P↔B, M↔N).
The syllables begin differently.

How it feels

Perfect
Family
Additive / Subtractive
Assonance
Consonance

resolvedunresolved

Example

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

Family chart

	Plosives			Fricatives					Nasals
Voiced	b	d	g	v	TH	z	zh	j	m	n	ng
Unvoiced	p	t	k	f	th	s	sh	ch

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

business2stiffnesschristmas12isthmusrichness

4 syllables

agribusiness

What it is

The syllables' vowel sounds are identical.
The sounds after the vowels are identical, but one side stops one consonant earlier.
The syllables begin differently.

How it feels

Perfect
Family
Additive / Subtractive
Assonance
Consonance

resolvedunresolved

Example

cried / cry — one side missing the final D

Source

Berklee College of Music's songwriting method (Pat Pattison)

2 syllables

vicious5grimace1fichusGuinnessinnes

3 syllables

delicious4suspicious1religious2ambitious1fictitious1auspiciouscapriciousfactitiousjudicious

4 syllables

superstitious1eponymousexpeditiousinauspiciousinjudicious

5 syllables

6 syllables

electrophoresis

What it is

The syllables' vowel sounds are the same.
The consonants after the vowel are not phonetically related.
The syllables begin differently.

How it feels

Perfect
Family
Additive / Subtractive
Assonance
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

witness10mistress1illness2sickness2fearless1listless1stillness1swiftness1bigness

3 syllables

assiduousbacilluseyewitnessheadmistresshomesicknessOlympus

4 syllables

cunnilingus1amarylliseohippuseucalyptus

5 syllables

lactobacillus

“forgiveness” at line end — from real songs

Try to keep my distanceTalkin’ of forgiveness

— Sufjan Stevens, “Once Upon a Poolside” · rhymes forgiveness / distance

Then as God as my witness, I'm gettin' back into show businessI'm gonna open up a nightclub called The Tree of Forgiveness

— Jason Isbell, “When I Get to Heaven” · rhymes forgiveness / business

Forgiveness, forgivenessEven if, even if

— Don Henley, “The Heart of the Matter” · rhymes forgiveness / if

How to read the 96 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.

Family rhyme 6: 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 34: Same vowel, but one word stops a consonant early. A slightly clipped, softer resolution than perfect rhyme.
Assonance 56: Only the stressed vowel matches; the consonants after it are unrelated. Loose and open — useful when a section should stay unresolved.