alliteration

noun

al·​lit·​er·​a·​tion ə-ˌli-tə-ˈrā-shən 

: 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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What is alliteration?

In alliteration, consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables are repeated. The repeated sounds are usually the first, or initial, sounds—as in "seven sisters"—but repetition of sounds in non-initial stressed, or accented, syllables is also common: "appear and report." Alliteration is a common feature in poetry, but it is also found in songs and raps and speeches and other kinds of writing, as well as in frequently used phrases, such as "pretty as a picture" and "dead as a doornail."

Alliteration can in its simplest form reinforce one or two consonant sounds, as in this line from William Shakespeare's "Sonnet XII":

When I do count the clock that tells the time

A more complex pattern of alliteration can be created when consonants both at the beginning of words and at the beginning of stressed syllables within words are repeated, as in the following line from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Naples":

The City's voice itself is soft like Solitude's

As a poetic device, alliteration is often discussed with assonance, the repetition of stressed vowel sounds within two or more words with different end consonants, as in "stony" and "holy"; and consonance, the repetition of end or medial consonants, as in "stroke" and "luck."

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

Recent Examples on the Web

The alliteration is a comment on the tactics that opponents say insurance companies use to delay or deny policyholders' claims. —Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 5 Dec. 2024

Pearson’s character, Oswald, is the most significant of these acts of thematic alliteration — an outgoing foil to the sullen Edward who looks a lot like Edward did before his treatment but who’s comfortable in his skin in a way that Edward has never been. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2024

But Burchard’s inflammatory alliteration proved especially damaging by dampening enthusiasm for Blaine in New York among disaffected Democrats and Irish Catholic voters, Summers and historian Robert D. Marcus conclude. —Robert B. Mitchell / Made By History, TIME, 24 Oct. 2024

That familiar alliteration, lodged in our national consciousness. —Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 5 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin allīterātiōn-, allīterātiō, from Latin ad- ad- + lītera "letter" + -ātiōn-, -ātiō -ation — more at letter entry 1

Note: Word apparently coined by the Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano (ca. 1426-1503) in the dialogue Actius (written 1495-99, first printed 1507).

First Known Use

circa 1624, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

alliteration

noun

al·​lit·​er·​a·​tion ə-ˌlit-ə-ˈrā-shən 

: the repetition of a sound at the beginning of two or more neighboring words (as in wild and woolly or a babbling brook)

alliterative

ə-ˈlit-ə-ˌrāt-iv

-rət-

adjective

alliteratively adverb