Customer Reviews

The Penguin Rhyming Dictionary (Dictionary, Penguin)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought the book way back in a London book-shop. I had to climb down the narrow stairs to the basement and ask where I could find a rhyming dictionary. A nod sent me to the remotest corner. Halfway, a voice from behind suddenly said: "The Penguine is the best." I don't know whether the people in this place worked on commission - if so, they sure lost money on that day, because the man was right!

I found and compared some 5 or 6 weighty and expensive dictionaries and an ugly duckling: Ms Ferguson's excellent listing. It is comprehensive, it is easy and quickly accessible, it never let me down in all these years. I had found THE tool for the professional translator of poetry. 5 stars and beer for everyone! That's the good news.

However: the only available edition is a typical Penguin production: tiny letters, lousy paper, shoddy binding - yes you guessed it, I am a snob when it comes to paperbacks, but I especially hate the Penguin way of producing books. And this here is a DICTIONARY for crying out loud!! It requires by definition sturdy boards and good paper and an easy to read typeface to weather rough handling and ceaseless thumping for never ending months and years of work. 1 star and an aspirin.

But then - on balance, this is the publisher's sly way to make you buy several copies I guess, and you know what: it is worth it. Fergusson's dictionary has been my indispensable companion for many years now. Perhaps we owe Penguin even a debt of gratitude, that they produce it at all ... .

I had heard that a rhyming dictionary existed, but never could find one, until I stumbled on this one while on vaction. It is everything I hoped it would be. It's easy to use and just plain fun. Anyone who enjoys words, particularly the sound of words, won't be able to put this book down. It expands the possibilities of poetry. Who would have tnought that "debonair" rhymes with "musketeer?"

I've had two over my lifetime, and this one is all I can really ask for when it comes to 'cheating'. It even teaches you obscure words - most of which would never be chosen - that rhyme with what you're looking for with definitions.
With a dictionary, I find it helpful to step back and remind myself of what I'm trying to write before I start jamming rhymes in that sound silly later. So I try not to use it, but it certainly helps a lot from time to time.

one of my favorites.... highly recommended for song writers... not hard to use at all...

I want to be careful as to which book I'm referring to, and therefore indicate that my Penguin Rhyming Dictionary by Rosalind Fergusson, bought in the US has a red cover with a horse and light bulb in right hand corner sqaure, with an '85 copywright date.

It's the second edition I bought, since the first one's binding collapsed so that I basically held it together with rubber bands. The same happened to this one in short shrift.

My Webster's Compact hardback rhyming dictionary is still together despite the wear and tear on its pages, so clearly I recommend this one over the former, since it's annoying to spend money buying something that falls apart in a few short weeks.

Aside from binding considerations, there's the problem with the lumping of many diffeent sounds together; "actress" listed under "iss" rhymes, which weighs us down with options that are incorrect anyway. Unless of course, "actress" IS pronounced ACTRISS!!!

Its plus is of course that you could look up a word like matriculate and find similar rhymes. Thus, paradoxically, convoluted words are paired with like words, while simple one-syllable words are sometimes lumped in lots that confuse.

But nothing is perfect and aside from the binding issue, it serves a purpose that in conjunction with other rhyming books can be marshalled in the service of writing a good lyric, or at least finding sound assistance in doing so.

Frank De Canio

This is so easy to use! Just look up the word in the back and it sends you to the section with what other words rhyme with it! I have used other rhyming dictionaries in the past, but they just seem to make the whole process more complex than it needs to be. Hey, I have an English degree and some of those other rhyming guides aren't even that "user friendly" to me!

The list of words includes both proper and slang words so be warned that there are profanity words available. I think for most audiences that won't be that big of a deal. Anyways, if you write poetry, lyrics, or just want to add a dash of catchiness to your writing than I suggest you buy this immediately. It's one of the few reference books that I can't live without!!!

Perhaps the 2007 edition (The Penguin Pocket Rhyming Dictionary (Dictionary, Penguin))really is new and improved, more streamlined and better structured, but this quarter century old edition shows its age.

First of all, it tries to mimic the old New American Roget's College Thesaurus in Dictionary Form (Revised & Updated) (Signet Reference) as we must look up our word to rhyme in the second half of the book to find its category, which is divided and subdivided much like Roget did his book of synonyms. This is quite cumbersome when compared with other rhyming dictionaries, including the excellent Merriam-Webster's Rhyming Dictionary, and perhaps (I do not know) is improved in Penguin's new 2007 edition.

I should not judge this book by today's standards, certainly, and I should not have tried to get this book on the cheap by purchasing the older edition. Much of the words are now archaic; there is much that is British dialect, and much of the rhymes are based on particular British usages which do not ring true upon our shores, not even as "slant rhyme."

Te fact that half of the book is a book list, and the other half categories means less room for an extensive list; in fact there are fewer entries in this book than in others. The fact it is so old, from the early days of PC's and of "mainframes" means the editor, Rosalind Ferguson, can write breathlessly of their wondrous service to the lexicon craftsman:

"To compile the Penguin Rhyming Dictionary, a list of words together with their phonetic transcriptions was extracted from a standard dictionary data base. The computer was programmed to sort these words, working from the end of the phonetic transcription back to the beginning, into phonetic order. Unsuitable and unrhymable words were then discarded and the remainder of the list was sorted into rhyming groups. The result it (sic) that homophones (phonetically identical words of different meanings), such as sight, cite and site, are now grouped together, and such rhymes as stipulation and manipulation, rather than being buried in an alphabetical list of -ation words, appear side by side. With its ability to scan through a complete list of phonetic transcriptions in a matter of minutes, the computer is an incomparably more versatile rhymester than the live poet with his dying brain cells and deteriorating memory (p. v)."

This continues on in this vein, and the old ghosts of The Voice of the Poet: Robert Frost and of The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats (Naxos Audio) with all their debilitations, Mr. Yeats ending with the marvelous works of Cuchulain Comforted and Politics, arise to shake their leaves of paper my way in vigorous, brilliant protestations.

I tried to get a rhyming dictionary on the cheap, and this is not it. Fortunately I also ordered the Merriam-Webster, which is wonderful. I suggest you go there, not here, as you will be sorely disappointed and wonder as do I what now to do with it. It is obsolete and incomplete. If you can I urge you to go where I have never been, directly to the Oxford Rhyming Dictionary.

Occasionally , to write in rhyme
becomes a passion of mine.

Sometimes, although inspired
An elusive word is required.

Usually, this book is then consulted
But cannot be blamed for what resulted.

As it happens, I didn't refer to the Rhyming Dictionary to write this particular piece of doggerel. But a more serious attempt at versification would have had me browsing through the pages. This is a book that is meant to be used. I am still using my 1986 copy, and it is still in very good condition.

I recommend this book to all who love words and enjoy writing as a craft.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This book was difficult for me to follow and I bought it for my jr. high student.