Introduction and rhyme production

Hi, I’m S. You may vaguely remember me from such comments as “I think it’s good to be aware of the peculiar rules of the Pretentious Pedant dialect of English” and Eleanor Heffalump’s double-dactyl, which were written under the name of “Shmuel” before I came out as nonbinary and changed my handle. (It turns out that using your first name as your personal brand can come back to bite you.) My pronouns are they/them, or she/her.

I have written doggerel and songs for about as long as I can remember, and a good rhyming dictionary is a useful tool for that. (I don’t see any inherent virtue in thinking of rhymes the hard way; the skill is in using them well.) So today I’m here to provide an unsolicited plug for RhymeZone, which is a very good rhyming dictionary.

RhymeZone’s primary function is providing straightforward rhymes, which are helpfully organized by number of syllables. They also indicate word popularity; more common words are bolded, while rarer ones are in gray. This helps you cut through the noise to find the rhymes that are more likely to be useful, or can make it easier for you to seek out terms that are off the beaten path.

The site also provides near rhymes and phrase rhymes. It also provides definitions and synonyms, which can help if there are no useful rhymes for the word you’re working with. It even provides “descriptive words”—words used to describe a given word—which could be useful if you need inspiration or just one more syllable.

I’ve been using the Web-based version for years; it’s free and has no ads. They also offer an Android app, which I happily paid the $2.99 for; unlike the website, the core rhyming dictionary works offline. (Other features, like definitions, do require an Internet connection.) As somebody who likes to write songs while on underground trains, this is a useful feature. In addition, they have an iOS app and an Alexa skill, and are featured in a Google Docs add-on, but I have no personal experience with those.

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