Rhyming Words

Find the puzzle piece that rhymes. Cat fits hat! For ages 3 to 6.

How hard?
For grown-ups

Your child sees a picture on the left half of a wooden puzzle and hears its word ("Cat. What rhymes with cat?"). The voice says every piece's word too. Your child drags a piece into the empty half, or simply taps it. Only the piece that rhymes fits: cat and hat click together. A piece that doesn't rhyme slides back while the voice says why ("They end with different sounds"), and after two tries the screen dims around the right piece.

A round is 6 puzzles, then it stops on "All done" with the pairs your child made and a line for you to keep rhyming together. There is no timer, nothing to collect and no losing.

Child lock: tap the lock at the top right. The ways out hide and the back button stays in the game. To unlock, hold the lock for 3 seconds and answer a sum.

Easy (ages 3 to 4): two pieces with clearly different vowel sounds, everyday words only. Normal (ages 4 to 5): three pieces and more words. Hard (ages 5 to 6): one piece starts like the picture (cat and can), because starting the same is not rhyming. On a computer, Tab and Enter pick a piece.

Evening look (dimmer and warmer)

Why it's good for your child, what they learn, and how we designed it

Free, no ads, no sign-in. We count plays without names or anything that identifies your child, and your child is never recorded. The puzzle and every picture are our own drawings.

Why it's good for your child

Hearing that cat and hat end the same is phonological awareness, the skill of noticing the sounds inside words. The National Early Literacy Panel (2008) found phonological awareness, together with knowing the alphabet, among the strongest early predictors of learning to read and spell. Rhyming Words practices it with no reading at all, and the line on the "All done" screen turns it into a rhyming game at the table, where talking together helps most (AAP, Zero to Three).

What they learn

Recognizing words that rhyme, from cat and hat to moon and spoon, which is kindergarten Common Core RF.K.2.a. On Hard, telling rhyming apart from starting the same (cat and can start alike but don't rhyme), which gets children ready to hear the separate sounds in words (RF.K.2.d) and to read word families in Spell the Picture.

How we designed it for ages 3 to 6

Every picture's word is said by one clear voice with no background music, because music and sound effects hurt word learning (Bus, Takacs & Kegel 2015), and Easy offers only two pieces that sound clearly different. Each piece slides into the puzzle in one slow glide and nothing loops, since fast cartoons lowered 4-year-olds' attention right after (Lillard & Peterson 2011). A piece that doesn't rhyme slides back while the voice says why, with no buzzer, pieces can be tapped or dragged (Hiniker 2015), and a round stops after 6 puzzles with nothing to collect and no "one more" prompt (Radesky 2022).

About the game

Rhyming Words is a free rhyming game for preschool and kindergarten, with no reading needed. It works like a wooden rhyming puzzle: each picture has a matching half, and only the word that rhymes fits. One clear voice says every word, so your child listens for the ends of words: cat, hat; frog, log; moon, spoon.

How a round goes

The left half of a puzzle shows a picture, and the voice says its word and asks what rhymes with it. The pieces below are said one by one. Your child drags or taps a piece into the empty half. A rhyme clicks into place and the voice says both words ("Cat. Hat. Cat and hat rhyme!"). Anything else slides back with a short reason, never a buzzer. After 6 puzzles the game stops on "All done".

Three levels

  • Easy, ages 3 to 4: 2 pieces that sound clearly different, everyday words.
  • Normal, ages 4 to 5: 3 pieces and more words.
  • Hard, ages 5 to 6: one piece starts the same as the picture (cat and can), to learn that rhymes end the same.

More: Spell the Picture spells the same pictures letter by letter, CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words lists word families like cat, hat and bat, and preschool games.

Questions parents ask

Is the rhyming game free?

Yes. No sign-in, nothing to download or buy. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers.

Does my child need to read?

No. Every picture's word is said out loud, so children who can't read yet can play. Rhyming is a listening skill.

What ages is it for?

Ages 3 to 6. Easy has 2 pieces with clearly different sounds, Normal has 3, and Hard adds a piece that starts like the picture, because starting the same is not rhyming.

How long is a round?

6 puzzles, then the game stops on an All done screen with a line for you to talk about together. Nothing starts by itself.