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Words that rhyme with only — 137 rhymes by quality | Rhyme Land
RhymeLand

the rhymes and the songs that used them

Words that rhyme withonly

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 N·L
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
lonely11
1
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
homely
62
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
slowly9holy2tony1joeychloezoepony5phony4coney1goalie1lowly1sony1stoney1wholly1blowyboneybonyBowiecronydoughy
3 syllables
Naomi1antone1maroney1unholy1baloneybolognaMarconipalloneSalomeShoshoneZamboni
4 syllables
ceremony2testimonyguacamole1abaloneacrimonyalimonycannellonichalcedonylobotomymacaronimatrimony
73
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
mostly1sophietoby1closely4rosie1trophy3Cody1boldly2brodie1ghostly1jodi1jodie1obie1boccebogeybrodycolbycoldly
3 syllables
coyote1Muskogee2adobeanchovychipotleDostoevskiDostoevskyJacobiLugosiNairobiremotelyViscontiloneliness2
4 syllables
karaoke1hypertrophyOkeechobeepedagogy
6 syllables
ring-around-the-rosy

“only” at line end — from real songs

You don't deserve to be lonelyPretty soon you'll find it's the only
— Elliott Smith, “Twilight” · rhymes only / lonely
You're only 17You can almost vote
— Cass McCombs, “Rancid Girl” · rhymes only / vote
These 20 years I've loved one thing onlyI love what I know about soul
— Jason Molina, “Soul” · rhymes only / soul

How to read the 137 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 1
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 62
Same vowel, but one word stops a consonant early. A slightly clipped, softer resolution than perfect rhyme.
Assonance 73
Only the stressed vowel matches; the consonants after it are unrelated. Loose and open — useful when a section should stay unresolved.