Phonetic Finder
Quickly find words with sounds you want in whatever order
Discover wordsmith heaven—there's nothing like Phonetic Finder.
While programming for WordPerfect Corporation in 1990, Robert Stevens (our President) programmed Rhymer. Dr. Mel Luthy, a Ph.D linguist, manually created phonetic representations for each of the 93,480-words, one at time.
Using the rhyming dictionary database, they next created the world's first searchable phonetic dictionary and named it Phonetic Finder.
Bundled for FREE!—with purchase of Rhymer, 3,001 Business & Sales Letters or 4,001 Business, Sales & Personal Letters.
An Example Phonetic Search
The example below shows a search requesting, "Find words like piper where the first and last syllables begin with the "p" sound, and the last sound is ur as in piper."
How to use Phonetic Finder
Create search queries in seconds with just a few mouse clicks, but you must use the Additional symbols to perform any useful searches.
- Create a phonetic pattern and retrieve words that match those sounds. To create a phonetic pattern, choose symbols from the phonetic chart containing vowels, stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, and glides.
- Use the "Additional symbols" to match zero or more sounds, any single sound, consonant, or vowel sounds. For example, if you want to retrieve a list of words that have an alliterative "p" sound at the beginning of both first and second syllables, you can do it in either of two ways: 1) type in a word like "piper" and click the button To Phonetic. The symbols pI-p<ur> appear in the Phonetic pattern edit text box. Replace the pI-p<ur> with p*-p*. The asterisk means "match zero or more sounds" and the hyphen means "match a syllable break;" or 2) type in p*-p* directly into the Phonetic pattern edit text box.
- Once you have assembled your phonetic pattern, click the Search button to retrieve a list of words with that pattern.
Limit Your Search
You may limit your search according to the number of syllables in the words, how the words begin, and how many letters there are in the words.
- Specify the range of syllables you want in your search (e.g. Find words between one and two syllables only).
- Specify the range of letters you want in your search (e.g. Find words between one and eight letters only).
- Reset the options with a single click on the Reset button.
Choose from Multiple Pronunciations
Choose which alternate pronunciation you want when you convert a word to its phonetic representation (e.g., when you type "read" do you want it pronounced "reed" or "red"?)
Advanced uses of a phonetic dictionary
With the Phonetic Finder Dictionary you can save time brainstorming for words containing specific sound combinations. Quickly assemble data for minimal pairs, pronunciation exercises, phonics research, and other types of phonetic study.
Phonetic Finder is ideal for research, creating word-based products, or for creating lists of words for children that have trouble with certain sounds.
- Pronunciation practice
- Vocabulary studies
- Sound-to-spelling studies
- Poetry or lyrics
- Sound frequency studies
- Sound combination studies
- English morphology studies
- English language materials development
Windows System Requirements
| Platform: | Windows 10.x, 8.x, 7, Vista, XP, 2000, 98, 95, NT, or Me | |
| CPU: | Pentium® processor or faster | |
| RAM: | 2 MB available RAM | |
| Disk Space: | 2 MB available disk space | |
| Display: | 640x480 Display, 16-bit color or better |