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Words that rhyme with likely — 80 rhymes by quality | Rhyme Land
RhymeLand

the rhymes and the songs that used them

Words that rhyme withlikely

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 AY coda K·L
14
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
slightly1lightly1tightly1nightly1rightly1brightlyknightlysprightlyidlywidely
3 syllables
forthrightlyfortnightlypolitelyunsightly
4
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
kindly3blindly2wildly1mildly
24
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
mighty3highlyRiley1mikeytidy2psyche1heidi1drylyflightykileykylieNikeshylyslylysmileyspiky
3 syllables
almighty1Hawaii1untidy
4 syllables
Aphrodite
38
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
tiny1nicely2ivy2shiny2icy1feisty1grimy1lively1ninety1timely1wisely1blithelydicey
3 syllables
preciselyinquiry1benignlyconciselydivinelyenquiryexpiryplaintivelyuntimelyunwiselycyclical
4 syllables
recyclablerecyclables
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 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)
3 syllables
unlikely

“likely” at line end — from real songs

Three-hundred, in-lineMy lungs have been hurtin' and it's likely
— John Moreland, “Memphis; The Blues” · rhymes likely / line

How to read the 80 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 14
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 4
Same vowel, but one word carries an extra consonant after the shared ending. The added sound softens the landing slightly.
Subtractive 24
Same vowel, but one word stops a consonant early. A slightly clipped, softer resolution than perfect rhyme.
Assonance 38
Only the stressed vowel matches; the consonants after it are unrelated. Loose and open — useful when a section should stay unresolved.
Identity 1
The whole stressed syllable repeats, beginning included. That's repetition, not rhyme — the line echoes instead of resolving.