Assonance

Definition: Assonance

Assonance

Noun

1. The repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words.

Date "assonance" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references)

Etymology: Assonance \As"so*nance\, noun. [Compare to the French expression assonance. See Assonant.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Assonance

Synonym: vowel rhyme (n). (additional references)

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a short passage of verse or prose. If the repeated sounds are consonants, the figure of speech is consonance when the repeated consonants are in the middle of the word, or alliteration when the repeated consonants are the first letters of the word. A combination of terminal assonance and consonance (the final vowel/consonant combination being repeated) results in rhyme.

Assonance is more a feature of verse than prose. It is used in (mainly modern) English-language poetry, and is particularly important in Old French, Spanish and Celtic languages.

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Poetry	Verse, rhyme, assonance, crambo, meter, measure, foot, numbers, strain, rhythm; accentuation; (voice); dactyl, spondee, trochee, anapest; hexameter, pentameter; Alexandrine; anacrusis, antispast, blank verse, ictus.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Assonance

English words defined with "assonance": assonate ♦ chordal ♦ polyphonic prose. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Assonance" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

French (assonance).

Domain	Title
Books	Graces of harmony : alliteration, assonance, and consonance in eighteenth-century British poetry (reference) Miranda: Understanding Poetry Alliteration and Assonance Images: Methaphors, Similies and Symbols for Use With IBM-PC (Part 2) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Assonance" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Assonance" is used about 16 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	16	87,710

Language		Translations for "assonance"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		asonancë. (various references)

Arabic		‏سجع (coo, note). (various references)

Bulgarian		съзвучие (consonance, harmony, unison). (various references)

Czech		asonance. (various references)

Farsi		هم صداءی (Consonance, Unison), قافیه ء وزنی یاصداءی , شباهت صدا. (various references)

French		assonance. (various references)

German		assonanz. (various references)

Greek		συνήχηση (consonance), παρήχηση (alliteration), ομοιοφωνία. (various references)

Hebrew		�"צלל�" (clearing, submerging), �"מיון צלילים. (various references)

Hungarian		magánhangzós rím, összehangzás (tune). (various references)

Indonesian		asonansi. (various references)

Italian		assonanza. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		類韻 , 半諧音 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		るいい�", は�"かいお�". (various references)

Manx		co-heeanys. (various references)

Pig Latin		assonanceay

Portuguese		assonância. (various references)

Romanian		asonanţã. (various references)

Russian		созвучие (consonance, harmony). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		asonanca. (various references)

Spanish		asonancia (accord, unison). (various references)

Swedish		assonans. (various references)

Turkish		asonans, yarım kafiye (assonant). (various references)

Ukrainian		співзвучність (accord, harmony, jingle), неповна відповідність, асонанс. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	assonare. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "assonance": assonances. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Assonance" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ansonance, asknance, asonance, assoance, assonace, Casimance. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "assonance" (pronounced 'As"so*nance'): Amenance, Appurtenance, Convenance, Coordinance, Countenance, Counttenance, maintenance, Ordinance, Ordonnance, Predominance, Pregnance, Preordinance, Prevenance, Provenance, Purtenance, Sonance, sustenance, Unisonance. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-e-n-n-o-s-s"
	-1 letter: canoness, sonances.
	-2 letters: ancones, sonance.
	-3 letters: ancone, cannas, canoes, canons, cansos, nances, nonces, oceans, scenas, scones, season, sennas.
	-4 letters: acnes, aeons, ancon, annas, anoas, ansae, canes, canna, canoe, canon, canso, casas, cases, cones, conns, coses, naans, nanas, nance, neons, nonas, nonce, nones, noses, oases, ocean, onces, sanes, scans, scena, scone, senna, sensa, sones.
	-5 letters: aces.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-e-n-n-o-s-s"
	+1 letter: assonances.
	+2 letters: ascensional.
	+3 letters: anthracnoses, nonfeasances.
	+4 letters: nonassociated.
	+5 letters: encapsulations, reconnaissance, scandalmongers, scandalousness, transcutaneous.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.