“Happiness” has no perfect rhyme in common English. That ending, /æpinəs/ from the stressed vowel onward, occurs in no other common word, and a perfect rhyme has to match it exactly. Writers rhyme it in two ways: on the final syllable alone (us, bus and plus) and on the stressed vowel with a matching final consonant (actions, reactions and distractions).
Spoken aloud, “happiness” is /ˈhæpinəs/, respelled HA-pee-nuhs, three syllables with the stress on the first. A rhyme has to match from that stressed syllable to the end, and the syllables before it are free to differ.
“Happiness” has no perfect rhyme in common use; the nearest matches are eight rhymes on its final syllable and two consonance endings.
In This Page
What Rhymes With Happiness
No common English word rhymes with “happiness” on every sound. Us, bus and plus come closest on the final syllable, and actions and reactions match the stressed vowel with a consonant of the same kind.
- Us
- Bus
- Plus
- Actions
- Reactions
Rhymes On The Final Syllable Of Happiness
“Happiness” ends on an unstressed /-əs/, a syllable it shares with eight common words. Only that last syllable matches and the stressed syllables differ, so the rhyme is weak on the page. Songwriters and poets still use rhymes of this kind, because listeners do not hear the difference in stress when the beat is on the final syllable.
- Us
- Bus
- Plus
- Discuss
- Thus
- Fuss
- Puss
- Wuss
Consonance Rhymes With Happiness
In consonance, two words have the same stressed vowel and end on consonants of the same kind, and this is the nearest match any single word has to “happiness”. The endings are listed from the nearest match to the loosest, and eight words on two endings qualify.
Consonance For Happiness Like Actions And Reactions
Actions, reactions and distractions end in /ækʃənz/, on the stressed vowel of “happiness” and a consonant of the same kind.
- Actions
- Reactions
- Distractions
- Transactions
- Contractions
Consonance For Happiness Like Candles And Handles
Words ending in /ændəlz/ share the stressed vowel of “happiness” and end on a related consonant.
- Candles
- Handles
- Sandals
Does Language Rhyme With Happiness
People often ask whether these words rhyme with “happiness”. Only the sounds from the stressed vowel on count, so two words can share four letters and still not rhyme.
| Word | Rhymes With Happiness | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Consonance only | Same stressed vowel, and the final consonant is of the same kind rather than the same sound |
| Us | No | Only the unstressed last syllable matches, and the stressed syllable is different |
| Business | No | Same letters at the end, but said /ɪznɪs/ |
| Witness | No | Same letters at the end, but said /ɪtnəs/ |
The Ending Sound In Happiness
“Happiness” ends in the rhyme sound /æpinəs/, made up of the stressed vowel /æ/ followed by /p/, /i/, /n/, /ə/ and /s/. No other common word ends in /æpinəs/, so every rhyme for “happiness” is a near rhyme that matches part of that ending. The ending has three syllables, so a perfect rhyme has to match the stressed vowel and every sound after it.
Words That Look Like Happiness But Do Not Rhyme
In spelling, “happiness” matches business, witness, goodness and darkness on the final -ness, but the pronunciation differs in every one of them. Business ends in /ɪznɪs/ and witness ends in /ɪtnəs/, whereas “happiness” ends in /æpinəs/. They end on /s/, as “happiness” does, so the match is partial: the closing consonants agree and the vowel is different.
| Word | Ending Sound | Closing Sound Shared With Happiness |
|---|---|---|
| Business | /ɪznɪs/ | /s/ |
| Witness | /ɪtnəs/ | /s/ |
| Goodness | /ʊdnɪs/ | /s/ |
| Darkness | /ɑrknəs/ | /s/ |
| Highness | /aɪnəs/ | /s/ |
| Madness | /ædnəs/ | /s/ |
| Illness | /ɪlnəs/ | /s/ |
| Weakness | /iknəs/ | /s/ |
Rhyme Schemes With Happiness
“Happiness” fits the common stanza forms through near rhymes and consonance, since it has no perfect rhyme. In the scheme, lines with the same letter rhyme with each other.
| Scheme | Line endings | How The Lines Pair |
|---|---|---|
| ABAB | Happiness / actions / us / reactions | With no perfect rhyme available, the consonance pair ends the B lines and the final-syllable rhyme ends the A lines. |
FAQs
No common English word rhymes perfectly with “happiness”, so the closest matches are words that rhyme on its final syllable, such as us, bus, plus and discuss. They match only the sound of its unstressed last syllable, so the rhyme is lighter than a full match.
“Happiness” has no perfect rhyme and no near rhyme among common English words. The closest matches it has are eight words that rhyme on its final syllable and eight consonance matches.
“Happiness” ends in the same letters as business, witness and goodness, yet none of them rhymes with it. The letters match, but the stressed vowel in each differs from the /æ/ of “happiness”.
“Happiness” has three syllables, said HA-pee-nuhs, with the stress on the first. The rhyme for “happiness” starts at that stressed syllable, so the syllables before it do not count.
