Alliteration

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Alliteration \Al*lit`er*a"tion\, n. [L. ad + litera letter. See
     {Letter}.]
     The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or
     more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short
     intervals; as in the following lines: 
     [1913 Webster]


  
           Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
           His vastness.                            --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields.    --Tennyson.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The recurrence of the same letter in accented parts of
           words is also called alliteration. Anglo-Saxon poetry
           is characterized by alliterative meter of this sort.
           Later poets also employed it.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne,
                 I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were. --P.
                                                    Plowman.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  alliteration
       n : use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed
           syllable in a line of verse; "around the rock the ragged
           rascal ran" [syn: {initial rhyme}, {beginning rhyme}, {head
           rhyme}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  36 Moby Thesaurus words for "alliteration":
     assonance, blank verse, chime, clink, consonance, crambo, dingdong,
     double rhyme, drone, eye rhyme, harping, humdrum, jingle,
     jingle-jangle, monotone, monotony, near rhyme, paronomasia,
     pitter-patter, pun, repeated sounds, repetitiousness,
     repetitiveness, rhyme, rhyme royal, rhyme scheme,
     rhyming dictionary, single rhyme, singsong, slant rhyme,
     stale repetition, tail rhyme, tedium, trot, unnecessary repetition,
     unrhymed poetry