alliteration
noun
called also head rhyme, initial rhyme
Did you know?
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
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
Molly Fitzpatrick, Vulture, 15 Feb. 2024
The great director’s preference for the Hollywood city of lights over the French one expresses a common enough affinity for illusion over reality, but the studio in question was not chosen for alliteration alone.
—Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Feb. 2024
There were many alliterations that aren’t in your face.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Feb. 2024
And among the early reading and writing skills that the series incorporates over the course of 20 episodes will be letter-sound identification and decoding words, blending sounds, alliteration, spelling and punctuation.
—Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2023
See all Example Sentences for alliteration 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'alliteration.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to alliteration
Dictionary Entries Near alliteration
Cite this Entry
“Alliteration.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alliteration. Accessed 27 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
alliteration
noun
Share