alliteration

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word alliteration. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word alliteration, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say alliteration in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word alliteration you have here. The definition of the word alliteration will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofalliteration, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Alliteration and allitération

English

Etymology

From New Latin allīterātiō, from allīterātus, from allīterō, from Latin ad (“to, towards, near”) and lītera (“a letter”).

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /əˌlɪtəˈɹeɪʃən/,
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən
  • Audio (Canada):(file)

Noun

Examples (repetition of initial consonants)
  • Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. (Milton)
  • Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. (Alfred Tennyson)
Examples (repetition of consonants in accented word parts)
  • In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne, I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were. (Piers Plowman)

alliteration (countable and uncountable, plural alliterations)

  1. The repetition of consonant sounds or letters at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; such repetition specifically involving stressed syllables.
    Hypernyms: consonance, consonant rhyme, pararhyme
    Coordinate term: assonance
    • 2018 March 20, “Fish fury flares over Brussels Brexit deal”, in ITV‎:
      So fish fury all round, as there has been in the past. And as an aside, that alliteration was, sadly, not mine that of a former political correspondent of the Daily Record, John Deans, and applied to the 'cod wars' with Iceland.
  2. The recurrence of the same letters or sounds in accented parts of words, as in Anglo-Saxon alliterative meter.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia