sonnet
Prosody. a poem, properly expressive of a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment, of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to one of certain definite schemes, being in the strict or Italian form divided into a major group of 8 lines (the octave) followed by a minor group of 6 lines (the sestet), and in a common English form into 3 quatrains followed by a couplet.
Archaic. to compose sonnets.
Older Use. to celebrate in a sonnet or sonnets.
Origin of sonnet
1Other words from sonnet
- son·net·like, adjective
- outsonnet, verb (used with object)
Words Nearby sonnet
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use sonnet in a sentence
Is it possible to follow up a school-shooting episode with lines from sonnet 116?
Television’s Finest Schlock: The ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Episode ‘One One Six’ Is So Damn Shakespearean | Paula Szuchman | September 18, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTYour character in Wit seeks strength in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, especially his Holy sonnet 10, “Death Be Not Proud.”
Cynthia Nixon on Bisexuality & Her New Role in ‘Wit’ | Kevin Sessums | January 24, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe new book celebrates the sonnet's uneven return to grace.
The sonnet is a sort of poetical fugue in which the theme ought to pass and repass until its final resolution in a given form.
Charles Baudelaire, His Life | Thophile GautierOne man wrote a sonnet to the woman, verses in her honor, telling about her beautiful eyes.
Tiger Cat | David H. Keller
The principal classes of lyric poetry are the song, the ode, the elegy, and the sonnet.
English: Composition and Literature | W. F. (William Franklin) WebsterA sonnet is a lyric that deals with a single thought, idea, or sentiment in a fixed metrical form.
English: Composition and Literature | W. F. (William Franklin) WebsterAs Mr. Rossetti has noted in an exquisite sonnet, his mind remained always at liberty.
Sir Walter Ralegh | William Stebbing
British Dictionary definitions for sonnet
/ (ˈsɒnɪt) prosody /
a verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with rhymes arranged according to a fixed scheme, usually divided either into octave and sestet or, in the English form, into three quatrains and a couplet
(intr) to compose sonnets
(tr) to celebrate in a sonnet
Origin of sonnet
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for sonnet
A lyric poem of fourteen lines, often about love, that follows one of several strict conventional patterns of rhyme. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Keats, and William Shakespeare are poets known for their sonnets.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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