Shakespearean sonnet

American  

noun

1. a sonnet form used by Shakespeare and having the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

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Shakespearean sonnet British  

noun

1. Also called: Elizabethan sonnet.   English sonnet.  a sonnet form developed in 16th-century England and employed by Shakespeare, having the rhyme scheme a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

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Etymology

Origin of Shakespearean sonnet

First recorded in 1900–05

Compare meaning

How does shakespearean-sonnet compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Petrarchan sonnet vs. Shakespearean sonnet

Example Sentences

Dame Judi read a Shakespearean sonnet, while the other performers included Gary Oldman and Robert Lindsay.

From BBC • Feb. 15, 2024

In less than a minute, the program had created in full a rhyming Shakespearean sonnet.

From Washington Post • Feb. 13, 2023

The Deebot N79S eventually gets there, of course, because even a bunch of monkeys with typewriters will pound out a Shakespearean sonnet on a long enough timeline.

From The Verge • Sep. 7, 2018

A Shakespearean sonnet is basically a high-level algorithm: three four-line stanzas in iambic pentameter, each with rhyme scheme ABAB, ending with a rhyming couplet.

From Slate • Jul. 1, 2016

On the 4th comes another Shakespearean sonnet, that beginning ‘Time’s sea has been five years at its slow ebb,’ in which he recalls the memory of an old, persistent, haunting love-fancy.

From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Colvin, Sidney