An eye rhyme is a pair of words that look like they rhyme, because they end in the same letters, but do not rhyme when you say them.
🔊 Pronunciation
- love: "luv"
- move: "moov"
- dove (the bird): "duv"
- dove (the past tense of dive, in US English): "dohv"
🌀 The Weird Part
Look at love and move on a page. The same letters, o-v-e, sit at the end of both. Your eye says "rhyme". Your ear says no.
Dove is the trickiest of the three. As the bird, it does rhyme with love. But in US English, the past tense of dive is also dove, and it is said "dohv". In that sense, dove does not rhyme with love at all. One spelling, two sounds.
love → "luv"
move → "moov"
dove (bird) → "duv", rhymes with love
dove (dived) → "dohv", does not rhyme with love
🗣️ Natural Examples
Mia wrote a poem about a glove, a dove and a love letter.
Sam read it aloud, and every line rhymed.
Then the next line ended with move, and the rhyme went quiet.
"Let's fix it," said Sam, "and trust the ear this time."
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Same ending, same sound?
❌ Love and move rhyme, because they end the same way.
✅ They look alike, but move is said "moov". The rhyme only exists on the page.
Are all the "-ough" words alike?
❌ Through and tough rhyme, because they both end in -ough.
✅ Through is said "throo" and tough is said "tuff". The same ending has several sounds, as in Though, Through, Tough and Thought.
🕵️ Where Did It Come From?
The Poetry Foundation glossary defines an eye rhyme as words that look like they rhyme but are pronounced differently. Its examples include through and rough, love and move, and cough and bough.
Wikipedia notes that many eye rhymes were once true rhymes. The words rhymed when they were said, then the pronunciation changed while the spelling stayed the same. That is probably part of the story for many pairs. The page does not explain each pair, though, so we can't prove the cause for love and move. The Great Vowel Shift is one well-known example of speech moving on while spelling stayed put.
💬 In a Conversation
Sam: I wrote a poem. Love rhymes with move, right?
Mia: Read it out loud and see.
Sam: My eyes said yes. My ears said no.
Mia: Poets can fool the eye, but not the ear.
🥡 The OddLingo Takeaway
An eye rhyme looks like a rhyme but does not sound like one. When you check a rhyme, say the words aloud. Love and move fail the test, and dove only passes when it means the bird.