Meaning & use
alliteration
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Meaning
noununcountabletechnical
A pattern in which several nearby words begin with the same consonant sound, used to make phrases catchy or to create a musical effect.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: the poem is full of alliteration; a single case is an instance of alliteration.
Patterns
- alliteration of something
- use alliteration
The slogan sticks in your head because of its alliteration: Fresh, Fast and Friendly.
Our teacher asked us to find the alliteration in the first verse of the poem.
Tongue twisters such as 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers' depend heavily on alliteration.
Common combinations
- use alliteration
- Advertisers often use alliteration to make a product name easy to remember.
- heavy alliteration
- The lyrics rely on heavy alliteration, with almost every line repeating a hard 'b' sound.
- example of alliteration
- 'Wild and woolly' is a simple example of alliteration.
- alliteration and assonance
- The poet combines alliteration and assonance to give the lines a rolling rhythm.
- poetic alliteration
- The newspaper headline played on poetic alliteration to catch readers' eyes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- head rhyme
- Head rhyme is a more specialized term, mostly used in the study of old poetry, whereas alliteration is the everyday word for the same effect.
Word family
- alliterate verb
- to begin with the same sound, as in 'sand' and 'sea' alliterate
- alliterative adjective
- using or showing alliteration
- alliteratively adverb
- in a way that uses repeated starting sounds
Commonly confused: alliteration or assonance? alliteration or allusion?
alliteration vs assonance
Assonance repeats vowel sounds inside words ('the rain in Spain'), while alliteration repeats the sound at the start of words.
alliteration vs allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to something, such as a story or person; it has nothing to do with repeated sounds.
Practice
Which phrase is the best example of alliteration?
Choose one answer.
Only 'The sun sank slowly southward' repeats the same starting sound (s) across several words. 'The cat sat on the mat' is tempting but it rhymes at the end of words, which is rhyme rather than alliteration. 'A loud, proud crowd' repeats an ending sound as well.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “alliteration”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.