Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words, as in: "that dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea” ( William Butler Yeats).
- n. The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables, with changes in the intervening consonants, as in the phrase tilting at windmills.
- n. Rough similarity; approximate agreement.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Resemblance of sounds.
- n. Specifically In prosody, a species of imperfect rime, or rather a substitute for rime, especially common in Spanish poetry, consisting in using the same vowel-sound with different consonants, and requiring the use of the same vowels in the assonant words from the last accented vowel to the end of the word: thus, man and hat, penitent and reticence, are examples of assonance in English.
- n. Agreement or harmony of things.
- n. Synonyms Paronomasia, etc. See pun.
Wiktionary
- n. prosody The repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds (though with different consonants), usually in literature or poetry.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Resemblance of sound.
- n. (Pros.) A peculiar species of rhyme, in which the last accented vowel and those which follow it in one word correspond in sound with the vowels of another word, while the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound.
- n. Incomplete correspondence.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words
Etymologies
- French assonance, from Latin word assonare. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Latin assonāre, to respond to : ad-, ad- + sonāre, to sound; see swen- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When the initial letters are vowels, the gimmick is called assonance.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“On "Irish Bulls" [VERBATIM II, 1, 1] and the German bull, by an odd coincidence of assonance, the German word for this linguistic extravagance is Verbalhornen.”
“The repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds with different consonants is called assonance: en Español”
“There is always an element of subjectivity in a judgement about alliteration as indeed also about other effects, such as assonance and rhyme.”
“But the two verbs nuach and nacham have a kind of assonance, they sound somewhat alike, and Lamech played upon this similarity in a perfectly permissible pun.”
“Assonance, in its stricter sense, means the repetition of an accented vowel (blackness -- dances), while the succeeding sounds vary, but the terms "assonance" and "consonance" are often employed loosely to signify harmonious effects of tone-color within a line or group of lines.”
“The kind of assonance avoided was identity of final sounded consonants in successive words, _e. g._, lane, vine.”
“He explains terms such as assonance and consonance through the lyrics of Keats and Eminem ...”
“There are other forms such as assonance (repeating vowel sounds such as boot, tune, fool) and consonance (repeating consonant sounds such as but, feet, knot) and meter (repeating stress patterns as we've discussed).”
“(They seem not to be linked by the three rarer types of sound-repetition known as assonance, preliteration, and consonance -- as in tid-bit, sad sack, or big lug.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘assonance’.
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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Word Words
This used to be my nym list, but there are so many words about words, I think it's time to expand and open.
acronym, antonym, aptronym, autoantonym, autonym, bacronym, capitonym, contranym, contronym, eponym, exonym, heteronym and 120 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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LIT - stylistic schemes & rhetorical ...
polyptoton, polysyndeton, aureation, pleonasm, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, anaphora, anastrophe, antistrophe, antithesis, aporia, aposiopesis and 34 more...
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Ruzuzu's Big Ass List
If you're looking for long s examples, see here.
ass, assess, asshole, basso profondo, basso profundo, crass, assay, mr. ass itch, compass, slag-ass macaroon, brass, class and 41 more...
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Poetry Terms
April is National Poetry Month. Add your favorite poetry terms to this new list!
alliteration, anapest, alexandrine, caesura, assonance, ballad, blank verse, iamb, conceit, couplet, consonance, dactyl and 30 more...
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the beat & the break
words relating to rhythm
syncope, ascensional, sonant, syncopate, assonance, caesura, prosody, modulation, cadence, rhythm, interval, clitter and 34 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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jeffreytwhitney's list
abecedarian, assonance, prolix, avuncular, baleful, borborygmus, accismus, atavism, catachresis, coruscant, callipygian, carbuncle and 117 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Learned
ambergris, andiron, aphelion, austral, bellicose, boreal, bravura, chaff, chicanery, creditable, credulous, decamp and 223 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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polymorph's Words
pornerastic, yeaux, enantiadromia, synchronicity, transubstantiation, sensimilla, slough, scaphism, symbiosis, prolix, orgiastic, cryptogamic and 245 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for assonance.
mollusque I agree. Assonance is dissonant. Oct 23, 2008
plethora I strongly dislike this word. Not because of the meaning, and not because I'm sick of year 12 English (although I am that, too), but because its mouthfeel is just so unpleasant. Oct 23, 2008