Definition of alliteration
: the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (such as wild and woolly, threatening throngs) —called also head rhyme, initial rhyme
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Examples of alliteration in a sentence
As far as sound repetition goes, I don't have any principles. I try to stay away from heavy alliteration and other pyrotechnics because I think they detract from the sense of the poem and blur the imagery. —Maxine Kumin, “A Questionnaire,” 1977, in To Make a Prairie, 1979
More specifically, how are actual events deformed by the application to them of metaphor, rhetorical comparison, prose rhythm, assonance, alliteration, allusion, and sentence structures and connectives implying clear causality? —Paul Fussel, The Great War and Modern Memory, 1975
Origin and Etymology of alliteration
ad- + Latin littera letter
First Known Use: circa 1624
Other Grammar and Linguistics Terms
ALLITERATION Defined for English Language Learners
alliteration
playDefinition of alliteration for English Language Learners
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: the use of words that begin with the same sound near one another (as in wild and woolly or a babbling brook )
Learn More about alliteration
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See words that rhyme with alliteration Spanish Central: Translation of alliteration Nglish: Translation of alliteration for Spanish speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about alliteration
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