Sonnet - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

son·net

Audio Help [son-it] Pronunciation Key

–noun

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.

–verb (used without object)

2.	Archaic. to compose sonnets.

–verb (used with object)

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

[Origin: 1550–60; < It sonnetto < OPr sonet, equiv. to son poem (< L sonus sound¹) + -et -et

]

—Related forms

son·net·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Sonnet

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

son·net Audio Help (sŏn'ĭt) Pronunciation Key
n.

A 14-line verse form usually having one of several conventional rhyme schemes.
A poem in this form.

[French or Italian sonetto (French, from Italian), from Old Provençal sonet, diminutive of son, song, from Latin sonus, a sound; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sonnet

1557 (in title of Surrey's poems), from Fr. sonnet (1543) or directly from It. sonetto, lit. "little song," from O.Prov. sonet "song," dim. of son "song, sound," from L. sonus "sound" (see sound (n.1)). Originally in Eng. also "any short lyric poem;" precise meaning is from It., where Petrarch (14c.) developed a scheme of an eight-line stanza (rhymed abba abba) followed by a six-line stanza (cdecde, the Italian sestet, or cdcdcd, the Sicilian sestet). Shakespeare developed the English Sonnet for his rhyme-poor native tongue: three Sicilian quatrains followed by a heroic couplet (ababcdcdefefgg).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

sonnet
noun
1.	a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
verb
1.	praise in a sonnet
2.	compose a sonnet

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sonnet [ˈsonit] noun

a type of poem with fourteen lines
Example: Milton's/Shakespeare's sonnets.

Arabic:	سونيت: قَصيدة من 14 بيتا
Chinese (Simplified):	十四行诗
Chinese (Traditional):	十四行詩
Czech:	sonet
Danish:	sonet
Dutch:	sonnet
Estonian:	sonett
Finnish:	sonetti
French:	sonnet
German:	das Sonnet
Greek:	σονέτο
Hungarian:	szonett
Icelandic:	sonnetta
Indonesian:	soneta
Italian:	sonetto

Japanese:	ソネット
Korean:	14행시, 소넷
Latvian:	sonets
Lithuanian:	sonetas
Norwegian:	sonett
Polish:	sonet
Portuguese (Brazil):	soneto
Portuguese (Portugal):	soneto
Romanian:	sonet
Russian:	сонет
Slovak:	sonet
Slovenian:	sonet
Spanish:	soneto
Swedish:	sonett
Turkish:	sone

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
sonnet

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.

[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sonnet

Son"net\, n. [F., fr. It. sonetto, fr. suono a sound, a song, fr. L. sonus a sound. See Sound noise.]

1. A short poem, -- usually amatory. [Obs.] --Shak.

He had a wonderful desire to chant a sonnet or hymn unto Apollo Pythius. --Holland.

2. A poem of fourteen lines, -- two stanzas, called the octave, being of four verses each, and two stanzas, called the sestet, of three verses each, the rhymes being adjusted by a particular rule.

Note: In the proper sonnet each line has five accents, and the octave has but two rhymes, the second, third, sixth, and seventh lines being of one thyme, and the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth being of another. In the sestet there are sometimes two and sometimes three rhymes; but in some way its two stazas rhyme together. Often the three lines of the first stanza rhyme severally with the three lines of the second. In Shakespeare's sonnets, the first twelve lines rhymed alternately, and the last two rhyme together.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sonnet

Son"net\, v. i. To compose sonnets. "Strains that come almost to sonneting." --Milton.

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