Short words that are eye-rhymes but don't ear-rhyme

few, brew, dew, whew, sew

(Thanks, Ivory!)

nee- (nay) but you forgot the accent!! :slight_smile:

Oops. Didn’t want that extra clue, so I cheated!

See if you can think of another oddball than the one in this group:

Bay, cay, day, gay, hay, jay, lay, may, nay, pay, ray, say, way

It may need more letters…

heat, seat, wheat, treat, great

Yes, I’m enjoying myself – why do you ask?

We can become SEA – Society of the Easily Amused

“can become”? Say it loud – we’re SEA and we’re proud!

rook
took
shook
cook
nook
crook
book
hook
brook

mook

I’ll see your mook and toss in gook, kook and wook (if you can have a Wookie, why not a Wook – a baby Wookie?)

Wasn’t that an old Marx Bros. routine … “Why a Wook?” ? :wink:

That might just be. At least as logical as “why a duck?” if you ask me.

I don’t see one, unless there is a pronunciation of “cay” I’m ignorant about. Are you alluding to quay, which I gather might be pronounced “key”??

You got the one I meant. According to Dick “cay” can be pronounced “KEY” or “KAY” with the first one being the “KEY” version. I will admit to not using this word a lot. If I see it in print I say “KAY” to myself and even wonder what spelling is involved when I hear “KEY” (key, quay, cay, whatever) spoken.

For the sake of the thread and the weirdo-in-the-list concept, I threw this one in for consideration.

tomb, womb…

bomb, aplomb…

comb

cowl, fowl, jowl, owl, bowl.

Bravo!

Goad, load, road, toad, woad … broad.

doll, moll, poll, roll, stroll, toll

dolly, folly, golly, Molly, Polly

all, fall, tall, wall, shall…

Have I got the gist of it?

There’s the famous w-vowel-r-consonant rule (ok, maybe not famous to people who don’t write articles in Physics Today about the proper pronunciation of “quark”) where any word with w-vowel-r-consonant is pronounced differently that other eye-rhyming words.

wart/cart
word/cord
work/cork
ward/card

There’s a millon of 'em.

-k-