assonance
Americannoun
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resemblance of sounds.
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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.
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partial agreement or correspondence.
noun
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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
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partial correspondence; rough similarity
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
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The lyrics are empty, too — only the grating, nasal, syllable-extending assonance rhyming “vi-i-i-ral”/“hi-i-i-gh” has any stickiness.
From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2024
“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
“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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
