[boffinism]

> Twofer Goofer HQ's adherence to strict "perfect" rhyme can be tricky for those slant rhyme-inclined.

And yet one puzzle they hammer Bard for failing is "Cactus Practice". What accent do you have to have for that to be a perfect rhyme?

[cowllin]

From Chicago ... and with more than a thousand solves on that puzzle we've never received a single complaint about the rhyme on that one (plus the stats say users find it an extremely easy rhyme to solve)! Curious how you pronounce that one such that they don't rhyme?

[tetromino_]

According to the dictionary (and matching my own non-native pronunciation), cactus is /ˈkæktʌs/, practice is /ˈpɹæktɪs/

The terminal /tʌs/ is not quite the same thing as /tɪs/; since they are both unstressed, the difference can be hard to notice in fast speech, but becomes clear when enunciating.

[yorwba]

Dictionaries often neglect common mergers like the weak vowel merger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Englis... where unstressed /ʌ/, /ə/ and /ɪ/ all end up being pronounced the same.

[runnerup]

There are differing definitions of “rhyme” in popular usage. See: https://youtu.be/_kQBVneC30o

A lot of “does this rhyme with that?” depends on the context in terms of how strict the rhyming must be or not.

[sethaurus]

In standard Australian English, this is a perfect rhyme.