assonance
[as-uh-nuh ns]
- resemblance of sounds.
- 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.
- partial agreement or correspondence.
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Origin of assonance
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for assonance
chant, inflection, refrain, theme, music, lyric, unison, consonance, run, strain, aria, song, concord, chime, air, euphony, lay, measure, carillon, resonanceExamples from the Web for assonance
Historical Examples of assonance
Not being able to preserve the assonance, I have dropped the greater part of his title.
Russian Fairy TalesW. R. S. Ralston
It is an example of assonance which is lost in the translation.
It is, we might say, a rhythm of thought, an assonance of feeling.
Music in the History of the Western ChurchEdward Dickinson
Yet there is an amount of assonance, which at times approaches to rhyme.
The Expositor's BibleGeorge Adam Smith
In our ode there is not much either of assonance or alliteration.
The Book of Isaiah, Volume I (of 2)George Adam Smith
assonance
- 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
- partial correspondence; rough similarity
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Word Origin for assonance
C18: from French, from Latin assonāre to sound, from sonāre to sound
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for assonance
1727, "resemblance of sounds between words," from French assonance, from assonant, from Latin assonantem (nominative assonans), present participle of assonare "to resound, respond to," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + sonare "to sound" (see sonata). Properly, in prosody, "rhyming of accented vowels, but not consonants" (1823).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper