assonance

American  

[as-uh-nuhns] / ˈæs ə nəns /

noun

1. resemblance of sounds.

2. 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.

3. partial agreement or correspondence.

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assonance British  

/ ˈæsənəns, ˌæsəˈnæntəl /

noun

1. 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

2. partial correspondence; rough similarity

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Other Word Forms

• assonant adjective
• assonantal adjective
• assonantic adjective
• nonassonance noun
• nonassonant adjective

Etymology

Origin of assonance

1720–30; < French, equivalent to asson ( ant ) sounding in answer ( as-, sonant ) + -ance -ance

Compare meaning

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

• alliteration vs. assonance

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.

Example Sentences

“The assonance of it, the rhyme of it feels really good. So maybe having an emphasis more on the sound of the words than the meaning is actually part of what makes this genre compelling.”

From Seattle Times • Aug. 29, 2023

As the book’s translator notes, Shree writes in English fluently but chooses to pen her novel in Hindi to preserve the language’s dhwani: its unique vibration and resonance, often through wordplay, alliteration and assonance.

From Washington Post • Feb. 3, 2023

The lyrics of the pop music we secretly listened to, for instance, were “soft”: “Assonance is assonance but a rhyme is a rhyme. You can’t approximate!”

From The New Yorker • Apr. 17, 2017

Downtempo and downtrodden, “1999” is casual in presentation but complex in execution, full of offhand assonance that’s hypnotic: “Used to beg mom dukes for lunch money/Honeys used to run from me/when pockets was dust bunnies.”

From New York Times • Jul. 27, 2012

“For instance, The beer is never dear near here, dear,’ is unfortunate, even as an assonance.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Related Words

• chant
• lyric
• music
• refrain
• theme