Rhyme Game

What is the Rhyme Game?

The Rhyme Game is the oldest word game there is: someone says a word, and you come back with a word that rhymes. This version gives you 451 words to rhyme with, in three levels, and checks every rhyme for you against a pronouncing dictionary of about 100,000 words, so there is no arguing about whether orange and door hinge count.

You can play it three ways: alone against the clock, out loud over a beat like a freestyle rapper, or with friends on one phone. There is no sign-up, no account and no app to install: open the page and play, on a phone, a tablet or a computer.

How to play

Rhyme Rush: type rhymes against the clock

1. Pick the level and the time: 30, 60 or 90 seconds.
2. Press Start. A word appears, for example LIGHT.
3. Type a rhyme and press Enter. Right answers lock in with their points; wrong ones get a short note.
4. When the time is up you see your score, your best score, and the common rhymes you missed.
5. Tap Challenge a friend to send your word, time and score. Your friend gets the same word and has to beat you.

Freestyle: rap over a beat

This is the rhyme game people play on video: a beat runs, a word pops up, and you rap a line that ends on a rhyme before the next word drops. Choose a tempo (slow 80, medium 90, fast 100 beats per minute), how often a new word comes (2 or 4 bars), and whether to show a few rhymes as a hint. The beat is a drum loop made in your browser; nothing is recorded, so the game cannot judge you here. Your friends can.

Battle: pass the phone

1. Add 2 to 8 players and choose the lives (1, 3 or 5) and the seconds per turn (10, 15 or 20).
2. Everyone rhymes on the same word, one after the other. A rhyme that was already used does not count.
3. Whoever runs out of time loses a life. A fresh word comes up and the next player starts.
4. The last player with a life left wins.

Choose The game (type them) and the game checks every answer, or The group (say them) to play out loud: the others tap “Rhymed” or “Missed”. Saying them is faster and works for children who cannot type yet.

How the points work

A perfect rhyme scores one point per syllable, so long words pay. A near rhyme, where the last sounds are only almost the same, scores 1 point. This is what the game says to a few answers for LIGHT:

The rules behind it: the word itself does not count, nor does the word with an ending or a word added (lights, daylight), nor a rhyme that was already used. Names do not count either; everything else in the dictionary does, even rare words.

Good words to start with

The easy words are everyday words with a big rhyme family. These are the first of the 93 easy words, with how many common words rhyme with them perfectly:

Medium words (198 of them) have smaller families or two syllables, and the 160 hard words have only a handful of perfect rhymes, so near rhymes start to matter.

Words that are hard to rhyme

Some everyday words have no perfect rhyme among common English words at all. They make a great final round: only near rhymes save you.

Perfect rhymes and near rhymes

Two words rhyme perfectly when everything from the last stressed vowel to the end sounds the same: light and satellite, cake and mistake. Spelling does not matter, so write, right and height all rhyme with light, while pint and mint do not rhyme at all.

A near rhyme (also called a slant rhyme) keeps the stressed vowel and changes the last sound a little: a d for a t (light and ride), an m for an n, or a dropped consonant. Rappers and songwriters use them all the time, which is why the game gives them a point. To see every rhyme for a word, perfect and near, use the Rhyming Words tool.

Freestyle tips

• Land the rhyme on the beat. The rhyming word goes at the end of your line, on the snare. Fill the start of the line with anything.
• Think one word ahead. The next word shows under the current one. While you rap the first line, look for a rhyme for the second.
• Use near rhymes. Light, ride and bike all sit on the same vowel. On a beat nobody hears the difference.
• Go long. Longer rhymes (night / overnight / satellite) sound more impressive, and in Rhyme Rush they score more.
• Start slow. Try 80 beats per minute and a new word every 4 bars, then speed up.

Rhyming games for kids and the classroom

Hearing that cat and hat end the same way is one of the first steps in learning to read. Teachers call these groups word families. Play Battle with the group as judge, or put Rhyme Rush on the class screen and let the class call out answers while one child types. These families are a good start:

More ways to play

• Rhyme tennis: two players, one word, rhymes back and forth like a rally. Battle mode with one life is exactly that.
• Couplets: in Freestyle, write instead of rap: a two-line poem for every word, ending on a rhyme.
• Car game: one person reads the word from the phone, everyone else shouts rhymes. Nobody needs to type.
• Hard mode: play Rhyme Rush on the hard level for 30 seconds. Ten points is a very good score.

Is it private?

Yes. The words and the dictionary load into your browser and the game checks your answers there; nothing you type is sent anywhere. Your best scores are saved only on your device. The freestyle beat is made in the browser and nothing is recorded.

More word games: Hangman, the Categories Game and the Charades Generator.