internal rhyme

American  

[in-tur-nl rahym] / ˈɪnˌtɜr nl ˈraɪm /

noun

Prosody.

1. a rhyme created by two or more words in the same line of verse.

2. a rhyme created by words within two or more lines of a verse.

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internal rhyme British  

noun

1. prosody rhyme that occurs between words within a verse line

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Etymology

Origin of internal rhyme

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Listen to how he squeezes a propulsive internal rhyme into the song’s hook with a single world, “boatload.”

From Washington Post • Apr. 20, 2023

Priscilla Block, “My Bar” Top-shelf internal rhyme from Nashville, where the cheap stuff just won’t do: “Out of the corner of my eye / I see the door guy checking your ID.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 22, 2022

But it’s Lil Wayne who’s truly Zen, afloat in a vortex of internal rhyme and syllabic cha-cha.

From New York Times • Dec. 4, 2020

The reader doesn’t stumble over an unintended internal rhyme or a clumsy repetition.

From The Guardian • Oct. 7, 2017

In eleven of these twelve lines internal rhyme occurs, sometimes joining the parts of a line, sometimes uniting successive lines.

From Select Poems of Sidney Lanier by Callaway, Morgan