assonance

[ as-uh-nuhns ]

noun

1. resemblance of sounds.
2. Also called vow·el rhyme [vou, -, uh, l rahym]. 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.

assonance

/ 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

Derived Forms

• assonantal, adjective
• ˈassonant, adjectivenoun

Other Words From

• as·so·nant adjective noun
• as·so·nan·tal [as-, uh, -, nan, -tl], as·so·nan·tic adjective
• non·as·so·nance noun
• non·as·so·nant adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of assonance¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of assonance¹

C18: from French, from Latin assonāre to sound, from sonāre to sound

Example Sentences

Max Fish and Snow are wed by more than their iambic assonance.

From The Daily Beast

Sometimes they enshrine a pun or a conceit, or depend for their aptness upon an assonance.

From Project Gutenberg

Assonance, in poetry, a term used when the terminating words of lines have the same vowel sound but make no proper rhyme.

From Project Gutenberg

It is written in stanzas of various length, bound together by the vowel-rhyme known as assonance.

From Project Gutenberg

Not only is there no rhyme, but assonance is very carefully avoided.

From Project Gutenberg

Paradise Lost abounds with the assonance which the dominant feeling of the poet induced.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• chant
• lyric
• music
• refrain
• theme