Half rhyme or
imperfect rhyme, sometimes called
bastard rhyme,
near-rhyme,
lazy rhyme, or
slant rhyme, is a type of
rhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds. In most instances, the vowel segments are different and the consonants are identical or vice versa. This type of rhyme is also called approximate rhyme, inexact rhyme, imperfect rhyme (in contrast to perfect rhyme), off rhyme, analyzed rhyme, suspended rhyme, or sprung rhyme.
Use in popular music Rock and punk In the 1977 song "
God Save the Queen" by the
English punk rock band the
Sex Pistols, the authors create a rhyme with the lines "God save the
queen" and "the
fascist regime". The 1979 song "
Up the Junction" by the English
new wave band
Squeeze makes extensive use of half-rhyme. The opening verse, for example: I never thought it would
happen With me and a girl from
Clapham Out on the windy
common That night I ain't
forgotten Hip hop and rap Half rhyme is often used, along with
assonance, in
rap music. That can be used to avoid rhyming
clichés (e.g., rhyming
knowledge with
college) or obvious rhymes and can give the writer greater freedom and flexibility in forming lines of
verse. Additionally, some words
have no perfect rhyme in English, necessitating the use of slant rhyme. The use of half rhyme may also enable the construction of longer
multisyllabic rhymes than is otherwise possible. In the following lines from the song "
N.Y. State of Mind" by the rapper
Nas, the author uses half rhyme in a complex
cross rhyme pattern: And be
prosperous, though we live
dangerous Cops could just arrest me, ''blamin' us'', we're held like
hostages Unconventional exceptions The children's nursery rhyme
This Little Piggy displays an unconventional (in most modern dialects) slant rhyme.
Home is rhymed with
none. This is because in Early modern English these words often rhymed. In some dialects of
Northern English English, these still rhyme. This little piggy stayed (at)
home...this little piggy had
none. In
The Hives' song "
Dead Quote Olympics", the singer
Howlin' Pelle Almqvist rhymes
idea with
library: This time you really got something, it's such a clever
idea But it doesn't mean it's good because you found it at the
libra-ri-a ==See also==