cynghanedd

/ kʌŋˈhanɛð /

noun

1. a complex system of rhyme and alliteration used in Welsh verse

Word History and Origins

Origin of cynghanedd¹

from Welsh

Example Sentences

In fact, another Welsh echo in the poem is that of the verse-form cynghanedd, which translates literally as "harmony": as a metaphor, this is broadly suggestive of the poem's various overlapping effects, which are not only aural, as here, but visual and philosophical – wing and horizon, ocean and beach, future and past, the different time-zones.

From The Guardian

Goronwy Owen wrote all his poetry in the cynghanedd, and his work gave the old metres a new life.

From Project Gutenberg

They all wrote for the most part in cynghanedd, and the work of nearly all of them is marked by correctness rather than by poetical inspiration.

From Project Gutenberg

The former are founded on elaborate rules of Cynghanedd or consonance, which term includes alliteration and rhyme, and every imaginable correspondence of consonant and vowel sounds, reduced to a system which Welsh-speaking Welshmen profess to be able to appreciate, and no doubt really can, though it is not easily understood by the rest of the world. 

From Project Gutenberg

The curious little song, which is all that remains of Jenkins’s poetry, seems to show indications of a feeling for internal rhymes and something like a rudimentary Cynghanedd, but there is not enough of it to reduce to any definite rules. 

From Project Gutenberg