alliterative

[uh-lit-uh-rey-tiv, -er-uh-tiv]

adjective

1. pertaining to or characterized by alliteration.

   alliterative verse.

Other Word Forms

• alliteratively adverb
• alliterativeness noun
• nonalliterative adjective
• nonalliteratively adverb
• nonalliterativeness noun
• unalliterative adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of alliterative¹

First recorded in 1755–65; alliterat(ion) + -ive

Example Sentences

Also, Phil isn't the only fuzzy Nostradamus with an alliterative name that claims predictive powers.

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That the team had to play “consciously competitive consistently” — an alliterative mouthful that Darvin Ham later edited down.

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They are short and alliterative and easily repeated.

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Head coach Curt Miller had one alliterative answer for the team’s six-game surge on Tuesday: continuity and chemistry.

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“It was alliterative. It was descriptive,” he said decades later, “and I liked the contradiction — a flop that could be a success.”

Read more on Washington Post

Related Words

• boring 
• redundant 
• repetitive 

When To Use

What does alliterative mean?

Alliterative is an adjective used to describe things that use or are examples of alliteration—the repetition of the same or a similar sound at or near the beginning of each word in a series.The tongue twister Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers is a classic example of alliteration. The sentence uses the same consonant (the letter p) at the beginning of each main word to make it alliterative.Sometimes, alliteration can involve the repetition of not a single letter but the same letter combination, such as tr, as in Trip truly tricked Tracy. It can also be created by the repetition of vowels or vowel sounds, as in Every editor expects excellence.Examples: Many comic book characters have alliterative names, like Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Wonder Woman.