Orange (word) - Rhyme

Rhyme

It is widely accepted that no single English word is a true rhyme for orange, though there are half rhymes such as hinge, lozenge, syringe, flange, Stonehenge, or porridge. Despite the fact that this property is not unique to the word—one study of 5,411 one-syllable English words found 80 words with no rhymes—the lack of rhyme for orange has garnered significant attention, and inspired many humorous verses.

Although sporange, a variant of sporangium, is an eye rhyme for orange, it is not a true rhyme as its second syllable is pronounced with an unreduced vowel, and often stressed.

There are a number of proper nouns which rhyme or nearly rhyme with orange, including The Blorenge, a mountain in Wales, and Gorringe, a surname. US Naval Commander Henry Honychurch Gorringe, the captain of the USS Gettysburg who discovered Gorringe Ridge in 1875, led Arthur Guiterman to quip in "Local Note":

In Sparkill buried lies that man of mark
Who brought the Obelisk to Central Park,
Redoubtable Commander H.H. Gorringe,
Whose name supplies the long-sought rhyme for "orange."

Compound words or phrases may give true or near rhymes in some accents. Examples include door-hinge, torn hinge, or inch, and a wrench. William Shepard Walsh attributes this verse featuring two multiple-word rhymes for orange to W.W. Skeat.

I gave my darling child a lemon,
That lately grew its fragrant stem on;
And next, to give her pleasure more range,
I offered her a juicy orange.
And nuts, she cracked them in the door-hinge.

Enjambment can also provide for rhymes. One example is Willard Espy's poem, "The Unrhymable Word: Orange".

The four eng-
ineers
Wore orange
brassieres.

Another example by Tom Lehrer relies on the way many Americans pronounce orange as /ˈɑrəndʒ/, as opposed to /ˈorəndʒ/:

Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
oyment thereof.

Nonce words are sometimes contrived to rhyme with orange. Composers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel wrote the song "Oranges Poranges" to be sung by the Witchiepoo character on the television programme H.R. Pufnstuf.

Oranges poranges, who says,
oranges poranges, who says,
oranges poranges, who says?
there ain't no rhyme for oranges!

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Famous quotes containing the word rhyme:

    In mockery I have set
    A powerful emblem up,
    And sing it rhyme upon rhyme
    In mockery of a time
    Half dead at the top.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    I could not get a rhyme for roman
    And was obliged to call him woman.
    Marjory Fleming (1803–1811)

    We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.
    Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)