sonnet

American  

[son-it] / ˈsɒn ɪt /

noun

1. Prosody.  a poem, properly expressive of a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment, of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to one of certain definite schemes, being in the strict or Italian form divided into a major group of 8 lines (the octave) followed by a minor group of 6 lines (the sestet), and in a common English form into 3 quatrains followed by a couplet.

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verb (used without object)

1. Archaic.  to compose sonnets.

verb (used with object)

1. Older Use.  to celebrate in a sonnet or sonnets.

sonnet British  

/ ˈsɒnɪt /

noun

1. a verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with rhymes arranged according to a fixed scheme, usually divided either into octave and sestet or, in the English form, into three quatrains and a couplet

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verb

1. (intr) to compose sonnets

2. (tr) to celebrate in a sonnet

sonnet Cultural  

1. A lyric poem of fourteen lines, often about love, that follows one of several strict conventional patterns of rhyme. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Keats, and William Shakespeare are poets known for their sonnets.

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Other Word Forms

• outsonnet verb (used with object)
• sonnetlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of sonnet

1550–60; < Italian sonnetto < Old Provençal sonet, equivalent to son poem (< Latin sonus sound ¹ ) + -et -et

Example Sentences

The infatuated narrator toys with presenting his love-object with a copy of Shakespeare’s sonnets and dreams of bringing him over to London.

From The Wall Street Journal

It even has a name: The Second Immortal Dinner, in which Blundy for the first time read his corona, a poem composed as a sequence of sonnets, that had been lost long ago.

From Los Angeles Times

That rude clatter is his equivalent of a sonnet.

From Los Angeles Times

No one is writing social media sonnets about eating a yellow squash over the kitchen sink while wearing their ex’s oversized T-shirt, still scented with a perfume they stopped wearing last fall.

From Salon

He consumed everything from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill to Shakespearean sonnets.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• ballad
• composition
• epic
• lyric
• poetry
• rhyme
• verse
• writing