Summarize:

Hearing the sounds of different words can help get your mind in tune to finding rhyming words. Speak the words you want to rhyme out loud and say any rhyming words or phrases that come to mind.  Use this time to brainstorm freely. Don’t worry about whether the rhyming words you come up with are the perfect words. Just write down whatever comes to mind. For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “egg,” say it out loud and then say words that come to mind, like “peg,” “leg,” “Meg,” and “beg.” For words in the “Hard to Rhyme” row, you might be able to come up with rhyming words if you change your pronunciation. For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “grotto,” you could use the word “potato” if you pronounce is “pahtahto.” If you get stuck, try using different accents. Sometimes an English word spoken with a Texas drawl can sound completely different than the same word spoken with an Irish brogue. With some words, you simply won’t be able to come up with a rhyme, even if one exists. To get past this stumbling block, let you imagination go wild and simply come up with sounds that rhyme with the word, even if those sounds aren’t words. The sounds you come up with might lead you to a rhyming word.  For example, if the word you want to rhyme is “orange,” you might come up with the sounds “nornge,” “fornge,” and “slornge.” If you look at the sound “fornge,” you’ll see that it is close to the word “forage.” “Orange” and “forage” might not be perfect rhyming words, but sometimes an OK sounding rhyme is the best you can do. Even nonsense sounds are OK. If the word is “lounge,” and all you can come up with for a rhyming word is “tounge,” write it down anyway. You never know when a nonsense word or sound will fit into a poem or song. Most of the rhymes we think of are either monosyllable or polysyllable rhymes. An example of a monosyllable rhyme pair is “legislate” and “pontificate.” An example of a polysyllable rhyme pair is “monocle” and “chronicle.” But there are other, less convention, rhymes out there.  Eye rhymes are two words with similar spelling but different pronunciation. For example, “love” and “move” are eye rhymes. Eye rhymes work especially well in written poetry since the reader can see the patter than you are creating even if the words don’t rhyme in a traditional sense. Slant rhymes are two words that share a vowel or consonant sound. For example, “far” and “heart” are vowel slant rhymes, while “shape” and “keep" are consonant slant rhymes. Rich rhymes are two words that are different but are pronounced the same. For example, “maze” and “maize” are rich rhymes. There many good rhyming dictionaries online. Try Rhyzome.com, Rhymer.com, and Writeexpress.com. All of these sites allow you to enter the word you want to rhyme and then search for words that rhyme with that word. With Rhymezone.com, you can choose whether to include phrases in your list of results..  This should be a last resort since your poem or song will benefit most from your own creativity. However, sometimes even the best writers need to turn to a dictionary or thesaurus, so don’t be ashamed to turn to a rhyming dictionary if you get stuck. If you like the feel of a book in your hand, there are many rhyming dictionaries in print. Try the New Oxford Rhyming Dictionary or Merriam-Webster’s Rhyming Dictionary.
Speak the words you want to rhyme out loud. Change your pronunciation. Use sound effects. Try out unique rhyming devices. Consult a rhyming dictionary.