blaine — James G(illespie)1830-93; U.S. statesman: secretary of state (1881, 1889-92)
brain — Your brain is the organ inside your head that controls your body's activities and enables you to think and to feel things such as heat and pain.
bran — Bran is the outer skin of grain that is left when the grain has been used to make flour.
caen — an industrial city in NW France. Pop: 112 790 (2008)
cain — (in Scotland and Ireland) payment in kind, usually farm produce paid as rent
caine — Sir Michael. real name Maurice Micklewhite. born 1933, British film actor. His films include The Ipcress File (1965), Get Carter (1971), Educating Rita (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and The Cider House Rules (1999)
can — You use can when you are mentioning a quality or fact about something which people may make use of if they want to.
cane — Cane is used to refer to the long, hollow, hard stems of plants such as bamboo. Strips of cane are often used to make furniture, and some types of cane can be crushed and processed to make sugar.
cannes — a port and resort in SE France: developed in the 19th century from a fishing village; annual film festival. Pop: 72 939 (2008)
chain — A chain consists of metal rings connected together in a line.
deign — If you say that someone deigned to do something, you are expressing your disapproval of the fact that they did it unwillingly, because they thought they were too important to do it.
drain — to withdraw or draw off (a liquid) gradually; remove slowly or by degrees, as by filtration: to drain oil from a crankcase.
feign — to represent fictitiously; put on an appearance of: to feign sickness.
flan — Spanish Cookery. a dessert of sweetened egg custard with a caramel topping.
fran — Francis Asbury ("Fran") born 1940, U.S. football player.
frayn — Michael. born 1933, British playwright, novelist, and translator; his plays include The Two of Us (1970), Noises Off (1982), Copenhagen (1998), and Democracy (2004); novels include A Landing on the Sun (1991) and Spies (2002)
han — a dynasty in China, 206 b.c.–a.d. 220, with an interregnum, a.d. 9–25: characterized by consolidation of the centralized imperial state and territorial expansion. Compare Earlier Han, Later Han.
main — chief in size, extent, or importance; principal; leading: the company's main office; the main features of a plan.
maine — a state in the NE United States, on the Atlantic coast. 33,215 sq. mi. (86,027 sq. km). Capital: Augusta. Abbreviation: ME (for use with zip code), Me.
mane — the long hair growing on the back of or around the neck and neighboring parts of some animals, as the horse or lion.
mann — Heinrich [hahyn-rik;; German hahyn-rikh] /ˈhaɪn rɪk;; German ˈhaɪn rɪx/ (Show IPA), 1871–1950, German novelist and dramatist, in the U.S. after 1940 (brother of Thomas Mann).
pain — physical suffering or distress, as due to injury, illness, etc.
paine — Albert Bigelow [big-uh-loh] /ˈbɪg əˌloʊ/ (Show IPA), 1861–1937, U.S. author and editor.
pan — an international distress signal used by shore stations to inform a ship, aircraft, etc., of something vital to its safety or to the safety of one of its passengers.
pane — (of food) prepared with bread crumbs; breaded.
payne — John Howard, 1791–1852, U.S. actor and dramatist.
plain — clear or distinct to the eye or ear: a plain trail to the river; to stand in plain view.
plan — a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance: battle plans.
rain — water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops more than 1/50 inch (0.5 mm) in diameter. Compare drizzle (def 6).
reign — the period during which a sovereign occupies the throne.
rein — Often, reins. a leather strap, fastened to each end of the bit of a bridle, by which the rider or driver controls a horse or other animal by pulling so as to exert pressure on the bit.
sain — to make the sign of the cross on, as for protection against evil influences.
tan — to convert (a hide) into leather, especially by soaking or steeping in a bath prepared from tanbark or synthetically.
than — in relation to; by comparison with (usually followed by a pronoun in the objective case): He is a person than whom I can imagine no one more courteous.
thane — Early English History. a member of any of several aristocratic classes of men ranking between earls and ordinary freemen, and granted lands by the king or by lords for military service.
train — Railroads. a self-propelled, connected group of rolling stock.
twain — Mark, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
vain — excessively proud of or concerned about one's own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.; conceited: a vain dandy.
anne — Princess, the Princess Royal. born 1950, daughter of Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; a noted horsewoman and president of the Save the Children Fund
gravy train — a position in which a person or group receives excessive and unjustified money or advantages with little or no effort: The top executives were on the gravy train with their huge bonuses.
harmattan — (on the west coast of Africa) a dry, parching land breeze, charged with dust.
holdup man — a person who commits an armed robbery.
inclined plane — one of the simple machines, a plane surface inclined to the horizon, or forming with a horizontal plane any angle but a right angle. Compare machine (def 4b).
inhumane — not humane; lacking humanity, kindness, compassion, etc.
in the main — chief in size, extent, or importance; principal; leading: the company's main office; the main features of a plan.
isle of man — Isle of, an island of the British Isles, in the Irish Sea. 227 sq. mi. (588 sq. km). Capital: Douglas.
java man — the fossil remains of Homo erectus found in Java.
kazakhstan — a republic in central Asia, NE of the Caspian Sea and W of China. 1,049,155 sq. mi. (2,717,311 sq. km). Capital: Akmola.
ku klux klan — U.S. History. a secret hate group in the southern U.S., active for several years after the Civil War, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired rights of black people and to oppose carpetbaggers from the North, and which was responsible for many lawless and violent proceedings.
ladies' man — a man who strives especially to please women and to attract their attention and admiration.
leading man — an actor who plays the principal male role in a motion picture or play.
london plane — a tall, hardy, widely spreading plane tree, Platanus acerifolia, of North America, having clusters of round, bristly fruit.
luggage van — a railway carriage used to transport passengers' luggage, bicycles, etc
macmahon — Marie Edmé Patrice Maurice [ma-ree ed-mey pa-trees moh-rees] /maˈri ˈɛd meɪ paˈtris moʊˈris/ (Show IPA), Count de (Duke of Magenta) 1808–93, president of France 1873–79.
marianne — the French Republic, personified as a woman.
minivan — a small passenger van, somewhat larger than a station wagon, typically with side or rear windows and rear seats that can be removed for hauling small loads.
miracle man — a person who performs or appears to perform miracles.
moving van — a large truck or trailer used for transporting furnishings from one residence or office to another.
muffin man — (formerly) an itinerant seller of muffins
open chain — a series of atoms linked in a chain not joined together at its ends, and so represented in its structural formula.
other than — additional or further: he and one other person.
pretrain — Railroads. a self-propelled, connected group of rolling stock.
party man — a person belonging to a political party, especially one who adheres strictly or blindly to its principles and policies.
peking man — the skeletal remains of Homo erectus, formerly classified as Sinanthropus pekinensis, found at Zhoukoudian, near Peking, China, in the late 1930s and early 1940s and subsequently lost during World War II.
pension plan — a systematic plan created and maintained, as by a corporation, to make regular payments of benefits to retired or disabled employees, either on a contributory or a noncontributory basis.
peter pan — the hero of Sir James M. Barrie's play about a boy who never grew up.
picture plane — the plane of a painting, drawing, or the like, that is in the extreme foreground of a picture, is coextensive with but not the same as the material surface of the work, is the point of visual contact between the viewer and the picture, and is conceived as a major structural element in the production of abstract or illusionistic forms.
piltdown man — a hypothetical early modern human, assigned to the genus Eoanthropus, whose existence was inferred from skull fragments that were allegedly found at Piltdown, England, in 1912 but were exposed as fraudulent through chemical analysis in 1953.
portal vein — the large vein conveying blood to the liver from the veins of the stomach, intestine, spleen, and pancreas.
power train — a train of gears and shafting transmitting power from an engine, motor, etc., to a mechanism being driven.
quiche lorraine — a quiche containing bits of bacon or ham and often cheese.
solo man — an early human being of the upper Pleistocene, known from skull fragments found in Java.
sugar cane — a tall grass, Saccharum officinarum, of tropical and warm regions, having a stout, jointed stalk, and constituting the chief source of sugar.
wagon train — a train of wagons and horses, as one carrying military supplies or transporting settlers in the westward migration.
warming pan — a long-handled, covered pan, usually of brass, filled with live coals or hot water for warming a cold bed.
water main — a main pipe or conduit in a system for conveying water.
weather vane — a device, as a rod to which a freely rotating pointer is attached, for indicating the direction of the wind.
whooping crane — a white North American crane, Grus americana, having a loud, whooping call: an endangered species.
acid rain — Acid rain is rain polluted by acid that has been released into the atmosphere from factories and other industrial processes. Acid rain is harmful to the environment.
aquitaine — a region of SW France, on the Bay of Biscay: a former Roman province and medieval duchy. It is generally flat in the west, rising to the slopes of the Massif Central in the northeast and the Pyrenees in the south; mainly agricultural
ariane — Rocketry. a French-built, three-stage, liquid-propellant rocket for launching satellites into orbit around the earth.
ascertain — If you ascertain the truth about something, you find out what it is, especially by making a deliberate effort to do so.
ball and chain — (formerly) a heavy iron ball attached to a chain and fastened to a prisoner
bearing rein — a rein from the bit to the saddle, designed to keep the horse's head in the desired position
compass plane — a plane for smoothing curved surfaces.
Four-or-more syllable rhymes
alluvial fan — a fan-shaped accumulation of silt, sand, gravel, and boulders deposited by fast-flowing mountain rivers when they reach flatter land
attention span — the period of time during which someone's attention is held by something in particular
capital gain — the amount by which the selling price of a financial asset exceeds its cost
catamaran — A catamaran is a sailing boat with two parallel hulls that are held in place by a single deck.
commission plan — (in the US) a system of municipal government that combines legislative and executive authority in a commission of five or six elected members
company man — an employee who puts allegiance to the company for which he works above personal opinion or friendship
confidence man — A confidence man is a man who persuades people to give him their money or property by lying to them.
cross of lorraine — a cross with two horizontal bars above and below the midpoint of the vertical bar, the lower longer than the upper
malacca cane — a cane or walking stick made of the brown, often mottled or clouded stem of an East Indian rattan palm, Calamus scipionum.
medicine man — (among North American Indians and some other aboriginal peoples) a person believed to possess magical or supernatural powers; shaman.
neanderthal man — a member of an extinct subspecies of powerful, physically robust humans, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, that inhabited Europe and western and central Asia c100,000–40,000 b.c.
property man — a member of the stage crew in charge of the stage properties
public domain — the status of a literary work or an invention whose copyright or patent has expired or that never had such protection.
remittance man — a person who is supported abroad chiefly by remittances from home.
renaissance man — a cultured man of the Renaissance who was knowledgeable, educated, or proficient in a wide range of fields.
rhodesian man — an extinct Pleistocene human whose cranial remains were found at Kabwe, in Zambia: formerly in some classifications Homo rhodesiensis but now considered archaic Homo sapiens.
watering can — a container for water, typically of metal or plastic and having a spout with a perforated nozzle, for watering or sprinkling plants, flowers, etc.
Two-syllable rhymes
abstain — If you abstain from something, usually something you want to do, you deliberately do not do it.
again — You use again to indicate that something happens a second time, or after it has already happened before.
arcane — Something that is arcane is secret or mysterious.
arraign — If someone is arraigned on a particular charge, they are brought before a court of law to answer that charge.
attain — If you attain something, you gain it or achieve it, often after a lot of effort.
aven — A vertical shaft leading upward from a cave passage, sometimes connecting with passages above.
bahrain — an independent sheikhdom on the Persian Gulf, consisting of several islands: under British protection until the declaration of independence in 1971. It has large oil reserves. Language: Arabic. Religion: Muslim. Currency: dinar. Capital: Manama. Pop: 1 281 332 (2013 est). Area: 678 sq km (262 sq miles)
battle plan — the strategy to be used in a military engagement.
best man — The best man at a wedding is the man who assists the bridegroom.
bhutan — a kingdom in central Asia: disputed by Tibet, China, India, and Britain since the 18th century but most closely connected with India; contains inaccessible stretches of the E Himalayas in the north. Official language: Dzongka; Nepali is also spoken. Official religion: Mahayana Buddhist. Currencies: ngultrum and Indian rupee. Capital: Thimbu. Pop: 725 296 (2013 est). Area: about 46 600 sq km (18 000 sq miles)
block plane — a carpenter's small plane used to cut across the end grain of wood
boat train — A boat train is a train that takes you to or from a port.
brain drain — When people talk about a brain drain, they are referring to the movement of a large number of scientists or academics away from their own country to other countries where the conditions and salaries are better.
branched chain — an open chain of atoms with one or more side chains attached to it
brattain — Walter Houser. 1902–87, US physicist, who shared the Nobel prize for physics (1956) with W. B. Shockley and John Bardeen for their invention of the transistor
butane — Butane is a gas that is obtained from petroleum and is used as a fuel.
campaign — A campaign is a planned set of activities that people carry out over a period of time in order to achieve something such as social or political change.
cave man — a prehistoric human being of the Stone Age who lived in caves
cezanne — Paul (pɔl). 1839–1906, French postimpressionist painter, who was a major influence on modern art, esp cubism, in stressing the structural elements latent in nature, such as the sphere and the cone
champagne — Champagne is an expensive French white wine with bubbles in. It is often drunk to celebrate something.
champaign — an expanse of open level or gently undulating country
champlain — Samuel de (samyɛl də). ?1567–1635, French explorer; founder of Quebec (1608) and governor of New France (1633–35)
chow mein — Chow mein is a Chinese-style dish that consists of fried noodles, cooked meat, and vegetables.
closed chain — any structural arrangement, used in the models and formulas of molecules, consisting of a chain of atoms that forms a closed geometric figure; ring
cocaine — Cocaine is a powerful drug which some people take for pleasure, but which they can become addicted to.
complain — to make an accusation; bring a formal charge
con man — A con man is a man who persuades people to give him their money or property by lying to them.
constrain — To constrain someone or something means to limit their development or force them to behave in a particular way.
contain — If something such as a box, bag, room, or place contains things, those things are inside it.
costain — Thomas Bertram, 1885–1965, U.S. novelist, historian, and editor, born in Canada.
dumb cane — a West Indian foliage plant, Dieffenbachia seguine, of the arum family, having yellow-blotched leaves that cause temporary speechlessness when chewed.
duquesne — Abraham [a-bra-am] /a braˈam/ (Show IPA), 1610–88, French naval commander.
duran — Roberto [ruh-bair-toh;; Spanish raw-ber-taw] /rəˈbɛər toʊ;; Spanish rɔˈbɛr tɔ/ (Show IPA), born 1951, Panamanian boxer.
fast lane — Also called express lane. the lane of a multilane roadway that is used by fast-moving vehicles, as when passing slower traffic.
floor plan — a diagram of one room, apartment, or entire floor of a building, usually drawn to scale.
fontaine — Henri [French ahn-ree] /French ɑ̃ˈri/ (Show IPA), 1854–1943, Belgian statesman: Nobel Peace Prize 1913.
front man — a performer, as a singer, who leads a musical group.
game plan — a carefully thought-out strategy or course of action, as in politics, business, or one's personal affairs.
gas main — a large pipe for conducting and distributing gas to lesser pipes or ducts, especially such a pipe carrying and distributing household gas beneath the streets of a town or city.
germane — closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent: Please keep your statements germane to the issue.
giant cane — a stick or short staff used to assist one in walking; walking stick.
great dane — one of a breed of large, powerful, shorthaired dogs ranging in color from fawn to brindle, blue, black, or white with black spots.
ground plan — Also called groundplot. the plan of a floor of a building.
harpin — any of several horizontal members at the ends of a vessel for holding cant frames in position until the shell planking or plating is attached.
hit man — a hired killer, especially a professional killer from the underworld.
humane — characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed: humane treatment of prisoners.
hussain — Nasser (ˈnæsə). born 1968, British cricketer born in India; played in 96 test matches for England (1990–2004), 56 as captain
japan — a constitutional monarchy on a chain of islands off the E coast of Asia: main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. 141,529 sq. mi. (366,560 sq. km). Capital: Tokyo. Japanese Nihon, Nippon.
pecan — a tall hickory tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the southern U.S. and Mexico, cultivated for its oval, smooth-shelled, edible nuts: the state tree of Texas.
pertain — to have reference or relation; relate: documents pertaining to the lawsuit.
petain — Henri Philippe Omer [ahn-ree fee-leep aw-mer] /ɑ̃ˈri fiˈlip ɔˈmɛr/ (Show IPA), 1856–1951, marshal of France: premier of the Vichy government 1940–44.
point man — the lead soldier of an infantry patrol on combat operations.
profane — characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious.
rattan — Also called rattan palm. any of various climbing palms of the genus Calamus or allied genera.
red man — a contemptuous term used to refer to a North American Indian.
refrain — to abstain from an impulse to say or do something (often followed by from): I refrained from telling him what I thought.
regain — to get again; recover: to regain one's health.
remain — to continue in the same state; continue to be as specified: to remain at peace.
restrain — to hold back from action; keep in check or under control; repress: to restrain one's temper.
retrain — to train again, especially for a different vocation or different tasks.
rodin — (François) Auguste (René) [frahn-swa oh-gyst ruh-ney] /frɑ̃ˈswa oʊˈgüst rəˈneɪ/ (Show IPA), 1840–1917, French sculptor.
romaine — Also called romaine lettuce, cos, cos lettuce. a variety of lettuce, Lactuca sativa longifolia, having a cylindrical head of long, relatively loose leaves.
saran — a thermoplastic copolymer of vinylidene chloride and usually small amounts of vinyl chloride or acrylonitrile: used as a fiber, for packaging, and for making acid-resistant pipe.
sea fan — any of certain anthozoans, especially Gorgonia flabellum, of the West Indies, in which the colony assumes a fanlike form.
sea lane — a standard navigational route for ships traversing an ocean or sea.
sedan — a city in NE France, on the Meuse River: defeat and capture of Napoleon III 1870.
small cane — a stick or short staff used to assist one in walking; walking stick.
tirane — a city in and the capital of Albania, in the central part.
trash can — a container for the disposal of dry waste matter.
ukraine — a republic in SE Europe: rich agricultural and industrial region. 223,090 sq. mi. (603,700 sq. km). Capital: Kiev.
urbane — having the polish and suavity regarded as characteristic of sophisticated social life in major cities: an urbane manner.
watch chain — a chain, frequently of gold or silver, attached to a pocket watch, serving as an ornament and, when passed through a buttonhole in the vest, as a guard against loss or theft of the watch.
wave train — a series of successive waves spaced at regular intervals.
modified american plan — (in hotels) a system of paying a single fixed rate that covers room, breakfast, and one other meal, usually dinner. Abbreviation: MAP.
