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assonance

[as-uh-nuh ns]
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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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Origin of assonance

1720–30; < French, equivalent to asson(ant) sounding in answer (see as-, sonant) + -ance -ance
Related formsas·so·nant, adjective, nounas·so·nan·tal [as-uh-nan-tl] /ˌæs əˈnæn tl/, as·so·nan·tic, adjectivenon·as·so·nance, nounnon·as·so·nant, adjective, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for assonant

Historical Examples

  • Edom means red, and Bossrah is assonant to Bsser, a vinedresser.

    The Expositor's Bible

    George Adam Smith

  • All rhymes and all approaches to rhyme, form the assonant metres.

    The English Language

    Robert Gordon Latham

  • I observed no instance of the assonant rhyme; but there are several glosses, or, in the Portuguese word, grosas.

  • Bel crouches—as men have crouched to Bel; Nebo cowers—a stronger verb than crouches, but assonant to it, like cower to crouch.

    The Expositor's Bible

    George Adam Smith

  • It is written in the assonant, or vowel rhyme, that was universal among European nations in the early stage of their civilization.

    National Epics

    Kate Milner Rabb

British Dictionary definitions for assonant

assonance

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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Derived Formsassonant, adjective, nounassonantal (ˌæsəˈnæntəl), adjective

Word Origin

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for assonant

assonance

n.

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