Syllable rime - Definition and Overview

In the study of linguistics and phonology, the rime (or rhyme) of a syllable consists of both the nucleus and the coda. It is usually the portion of a syllable from the vowel to the end. For example, /oat/ is the rime of both "oat" and "boat." However, the nucleus does not necessarily need to be a vowel. For instance, the rime of the second syllables of the words "bottle" and "fiddle" is just /l/, a liquid consonant.

In addition to their role in the perception of rhyme, rimes are particuarly significant in research (through the use of rime tables) on historical Chinese phonology and the origins of Chinese characters.