assonance

[ as-uh-nuhns ]

/ ˈæs ə nəns /

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See synonyms for: assonance / assonant on Thesaurus.com

noun

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

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

OTHER WORDS FROM assonance

as·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. 2023

How to use assonance in a sentence

Most of it is in the difficult assonant or vowel rhyme, hardly ever previously attempted in our language.
Poems|Denis Florence MacCarthy
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
The versification is careless; when rhyme hampered the poet he dropped it, and used instead the assonant rhyme.
National Epics|Kate Milner Rabb

I observed no instance of the assonant rhyme; but there are several glosses, or, in the Portuguese word, grosas.
Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 1|Henry Hallam

British Dictionary definitions for assonance

assonance

/ (ˈæsənəns) /

noun

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

Derived forms of assonance

assonant, adjective, nounassonantal (ˌæsəˈnæntəl), adjective

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

assonance

Origin of assonance

OTHER WORDS FROM assonance

Words related to assonance

How to use assonance in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for assonance

Derived forms of assonance

Word Origin for assonance