slant rhyme

/slænt raɪm/

Other forms: slant rhymes

Write a poem with words that sound similar but don't quite rhyme, and you've used slant rhyme. Poets use the technique of slant rhyme to surprise their readers.

Musicians and poets use slant rhyme to defy expectations, sometimes in conjunction with true rhyme. Emily Dickinson was a master of this technique, in one poem rhyming "men" and "ten" (a true rhyme), and in the following stanza using the slant rhyme of "queen" and "afternoon." Slant rhymes often end with the same consonant sound, or with assonance, which is a term that refers to similar vowel sounds, as in the words "asleep" and "tree." Hiphop, with its emphasis on rhyme, makes frequent use of the not-quite-rhyming technique of slant rhyme.

Definitions of slant rhyme

1. noun

   an imperfect rhyme in which only the vowel sounds or consonant sounds correspond, as in “far / part” or “last / taste
   type of:

   rhyme, rime

   correspondence in the sounds of two or more lines (especially final sounds)