assonance (redirected from assonances)

as·so·nance  (s-nns)

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.

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[French, from Latin assonre, to respond to : ad-, ad- + sonre, to sound; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

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asso·nant adj. & n.

asso·nantal (-nntl) adj.

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assonance

Noun

the rhyming of vowel sounds but not consonants, as in time and light [Latin assonare to sound]

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assonance

likeness or approximate similarity in sound.

See also: Sound

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resemblance of sound, particularly vowel sounds, occurring in words of close proximity.

See also: Rhetoric and Rhetorical Devices

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

assonance - the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words vowel rhyme rhyme, rime - correspondence in the sounds of two or more lines (especially final sounds)