I challenged folks to come up with a word rhyming with "phobia" (other than the various phobias themselves.) Jerry answered with a link to Rhymzone, which lists eight words.

One of the eight works (copia: a type of fish), so Jerry wins the prize. But since I was thinking of a different word, the challenge remains open, with a second, identical prize.

Still, "one of eight" shows just how bad Rymezone is. I've found much better rhyming dictionaries in paper and ink form -- but not in on-line form. Does anyone know of a decent one on-line?

(If you want the details of the Rymezone defects: paint here: According to one-look, robia doesn't exist, tobia is an acronym, and Zenobia is a proper name. Rymezone's other four entrys are specific phobias, but there's no sign of dozens of other phobias, many well-known.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hic et ubique,

Along with being incomplete, a Rhymezone offering may also include words that simply don't rhyme. And no, wait, I don't just mean they don't rhyme to me, they simply don't rhyme at all and I suppose are typos of some sort.

Also, quite a few entries will produce odd "words" which look suspiciously like cyber-names or invented terms that I doubt you'd find in any dictionary.

Still, all in all, it's a pretty good source especially when you follow the OneLook link to the site showing other words ending in the same three letters as your to-be-rhymed word. Most of them won't come close to actually rhyming but a few may. Plus others may be compound words not given in the Rhymezone search.

Rhymezone suffers because many English words can be pronounced in more than one way. Sometimes the number of syllables varies depending on the meaning and pronunciation of the word e.g.

Rhymes for "tea" include "sep". Look up "sep" and you find:

quote:

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# noun: the month following August and preceding October
# name: A surname (very rare: popularity rank in the U.S.: #68007)

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Obviously, neither the surname nor the month abbreviation rhyme with "tea". It becomes clear once you realize that "sep" is an acronym. It should have been "SEP" (Somebody Else's Problem) and should have been listed with the three-syllable words.

A smarter rhyming dictionary would have to keep separate entries for the different pronunciations of words. "The" would have two entries: one that rhymes with "bee" and one that rhymes with "huh".

I'm not upset by Rhymezone bundling different rhymes together. I use it as a list of potential rhymes, not as a definitive guide to whether words actually rhyme. If I have to ask the question, "do these two words rhyme?" then I'm really asking "is it permissible to pronounce these two words in such a way that they rhyme?" Here, a pronunciation guide is more valuable than a rhyming dictionary.