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assonance - 5 dictionary results

as⋅so⋅nance

  [as-uh-nuhns]
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–noun
1. resemblance of sounds.
2. 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.
3. partial agreement or correspondence.
Origin:
1720–30; < F, equiv. to asson(ant) sounding in answer (see as-, sonant ) + -ance -ance

Related forms:
as⋅so⋅nant, adjective, noun
as⋅so⋅nan⋅tal  [as-uh-nan-tl] , as⋅so⋅nan⋅tic, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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as·so·nance   (ās'ə-nəns)   
n.  
  1. Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words, as in: "that dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea" (William Butler Yeats).
  2. The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables, with changes in the intervening consonants, as in the phrase tilting at windmills.
  3. Rough similarity; approximate agreement.

[French, from Latin assonāre, to respond to : ad-, ad- + sonāre, to sound; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]
as'so·nant adj. & n., as'so·nan'tal (-nān'tl) adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Assonance

As"so*nance\, n. [Cf. F. assonance. See Assonant.]

1. Resemblance of sound. "The disagreeable assonance of `sheath' and `sheathed."' --Steevens.

2. (Pros.) A peculiar species of rhyme, in which the last acce`ted vow`l and tnose whioh follow it in one word correspond in sound with the vowels of another word, while the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound; as, calamo and platano, baby and chary.

The assonance is peculiar to the Spaniard. --Hallam.

3. Incomplete correspondence.

Assonance between facts seemingly remote. --Lowell.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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assonance 
1727, "resemblance of sounds between words," from Fr. assonance, from L. assonare "respond to," from ad- "to" + sonare "to sound" (see sound (n.1)). Properly, in prosody, "rhyming of accented vowels, but not consonants" (1823).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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assonance

in prosody, repetition of stressed vowel sounds within words with different end consonants, as in the phrase "quite like." It is unlike rhyme, in which initial consonants differ but both vowel and end-consonant sounds are identical, as in the phrase "quite right." Many common phrases, such as "mad as a hatter," "free as a breeze," or "high as a kite," owe their appeal to assonance. As a poetic device, internal assonance is usually combined with alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds) and consonance (repetition of end or medial consonant sounds) to enrich the texture of the poetic line. Sometimes a single vowel sound is repeated, as in the opening line of Thomas Hood's "Autumn": I saw old Autumn in the misty morn

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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