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assonance

[as-uh-nuh ns]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR assonance 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.

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. 2019

Related Words for assonant

melodic, tuneful, musical, accordant, agreeable, clear, dulcet, euphonious, mellifluous, mellow, pleasing, resonant, soft, sweet, symphonic, euphonic, harmonic, symphonious, canorous, concordant

Examples from the Web for assonant

Historical Examples of assonant

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.
Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 1
Henry Hallam
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

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 Formsassonant, 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

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).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper