by Paul Zollo
inclusiveness
inconclusiveness
intrusiveness
unobtrusiveness
US-KI-LI
duskily
huskily
muskily
US-KU-LAR
corpuscular
crepuscular
muscular
neuromuscular
Long U-SO-RI
conclusory
delusory
elusory
illusory
UST-FUL-I
distrustfully
lustfully
mistrustfully
trustfully
UST-I-BL
adjustable
combustible
harvestable
readjustable
US-TI-EST
crustiest
dustiest
fustiest
gustiest
lustiest
mustiest
rustiest
US-TI-NESS
bustiness
crustiness
dustiness
fustiness
lustiness
mustiness
rustiness
US-TRI-US
illustrious
industrious
US-TURING
blustering
filibustering
flustering
mustering
preregistering
Long U-TA-BL
commutable
computable
confutable
disputable
executable
immutable
imputable
incomputable
indisputable
inscrutable
mutable
prosecutable
refutable
scrutable
substitutable
suitable
transmutable
unrefutable
unsuitable
Long UTH-FUL-LI
truthfully
untruthfully
youthfully
Long UTH-FUL-NESS
truthfulness
youthfulness
Long UTH-LESS-LI
ruthlessly
truthlessly
UTH-UR-HOOD
brotherhood
motherhood
UTH-UR-ING
brothering
mothering
smothering
UTH-UR-LI
brotherly
motherly
southerly
Long U-TU-FUL
beautiful
dutiful
undutiful
Long U-TI-KL
cuticle
hermeneutical
pharmaceutical
therapeutical
Long U-TI-NEER
mutineer
scrutineer
Long U-TI-NUS
glutinous
mutinous
Long U-TI-US
beauteous
duteous
gluteus
UT-UR-ING
buttering
cluttering
fluttering
muttering
puttering
shuttering
spluttering
sputtering
stuttering
uttering
UT-UR-UR
flutterer
mutterer
putterer
sputterer
splutterer
stutterer
utterer
Long UV-A-BL
approvable
disprovable
immovable
immoveable
improvable
movable
moveable
provable
removable
unmovable
unprovable
unremovable
Long U-VI-AL
alluvial
antediluvial
effluvial
fluvial
pluvial
Long U-VI-AN
antedeluvian
Peruvian
Long U-ZA-BL
abusable
accusable
diffusible
excusable
inexcusable
infusible
reusable
transfusable
transfusible
unaccusable
unexcusable
unusable
usable
useable
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is dedicated to the two loves of my life, my son — Joshua Zollo, who makes rhyming and living fun, and my wife, Leslie Diller Zollo, who helps me get through every day.
My sincere gratitude is extended here to many people, but must begin with Andrea Rotondo, my editor and friend at Omnibus Books; it’s Andrea’s vision, patience, and encouragement that led me to take on this project, and to complete it. Thanks to my other friends and supporters at Omnibus, especially Alison Wofford, a publicist who has the rare combination of warmth and efficiency, and Sara Resnick. Also many heartfelt thanks: to Mr. Mark Salerno, a great poet and an even greater friend, who knows more about rhymes and poetry than I do, and who kindly contributed his acumen to this volume, to all the following Zollos, for your love and enduring support: my parents Burt and Lois, Peter and Debbie, Benjamin, Sarah and Jimmy, and to the Millers: Peggy and David, Jason and Katy, Liza and Robbie, and to the many friends who made the long bricklaying epoch of creating this book a much happier one: Scott Docherty, Howard Diller, Jean Stawarz, Jeff and Holly Gold, Andy and Anne Kurtzman, Barbara Nassman, Tomas Ulrich, Geoffrey Owens, Henry Diltz, Scott Eyerly, Sean Heaney, Janet Heaney, Amy O’Neill, Marketa Janska, Veronique Chevalier, Ben Schafer at Da Capo, Michael Dorr, Billy Salisbury, Craig Eastman, Kirke Jan, Bobby Malone, Sandy Ross, Lee Hirsch, Rob Pongi, Paul Kulak, Franne Golde, Nurit Wilde, Judy Close, Mo Golden & Henry Crinkle, Jack Frost, Robert Milkwood Thomas, Doug Waterman, Wade Smith, Mary Klauzer, Jay Silverman, Steve Schalchlin, Darryl Purpose, Rik Lawrence, Lucy Hagan, James Hurley, Smokey Miles, Eddie Simon, Danny Shorago, Jill Freeman, Debbie Kruger, Noah Stone, Paul Kulak, Severin Browne, Allan Harris, James Coberly Smith, Bruce Lewitt, Dr. Nareshkumar Arulampalam, Adam Block, Purlie Olloz, and my friends at the Aspen Writer’s Foundation—Lisa Consiglio, Daniel Shaw and Meredith Carroll.
To the many authors of fine rhyming dictionaries, especially Gene Lees and Sammy Cahn, and to the many songwriters and poets whose wisdom and whose achievement in the art and craft of rhyming fed me and provided me with good examples of great rhymes, especially Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Aimee Mann, Yoko Ono, Sammy Cahn, Cole Porter, Yip Harburg, Ira and George Gershwin, Peter Case, Irving Gordon, Lorenz Hart, W.H. Auden, Ogden Nash, Tom Lehrer, Laura Nyro, Busta Rhymes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Keats, Lord Byron, Willie “The Shake” Shakespeare, Steve Goodman, Michael Smith, Jacques Levy, Rickie Lee Jones, and Harry Nilsson.
