assonance
Americannoun
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resemblance of sounds.
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Also called vowel rhyme. Prosody. rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words, as in penitent and reticence.
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partial agreement or correspondence.
noun
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the use of the same vowel sound with different consonants or the same consonant with different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables, as in a line of verse. Examples are time and light or mystery and mastery
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partial correspondence; rough similarity
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of assonance
1720–30; < French, equivalent to asson ( ant ) sounding in answer ( see as-, sonant) + -ance -ance
Compare meaning
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Explanation
"Blue cartoons play through the boob tube" is an example of assonance — when a bunch of words in a row share similar sounds (like the “oo” sound in the quote). In poetry, assonance is when vowels within a word rhyme with other words, and there are lots of examples. Here’s one from English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “That solitude which suits abstruser musings.” Say it out loud and you can hear assonance clearly. The word comes from the Latin assonare, which literally translates as “respond to.” If you’re reading a sentence, and the words sound like they’re responding to each other — you could be detecting assonance.
Vocabulary lists containing assonance
Some Helpful Poetry Terms
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Poetry: Literary Devices
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Rhetoric
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Assonance is used freely, but there is not more rhyming than is usual in the poetry of the late empire.
From Latin Literature by Mackail, J. W. (John William)
Assonance must never be mistaken for true rhyme, and combinations like boats-float or them-brim should be avoided.
From Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
Assonance was the characteristic coördinating element in the verse of the early Romance languages, the Provençal, Old French, and Spanish.
From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Alden, Raymond MacDonald
Assonance frequently takes the place of rhyme, and a word often rhymes with itself.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 3 by Mabie, Hamilton Wright
Assonance in Latin poetry has no such relevance.
From The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius by Cruttwell, Charles Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
