Adjacent Words

Alliteration definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ALLITERA'TION, n. [L. ad and litera, a letter.]
The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as f and g in the following line:
Fields ever fresh, and groves forever green.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: 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: alliteration, initial rhyme, beginning rhyme, head rhyme]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: ad- + Latin littera letter Date: circa 1624 the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (as wild and woolly, threatening throngs) — called also head rhyme, initial rhyme

Britannica Concise

Repetition of consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables. A frequently used poetic device, it is often discussed with assonance (the repetition of stressed vowel sounds within words with different end consonants) and consonance (the repetition of end or medial consonants).

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words (e.g. cool, calm, and collected). Etymology: mod.L alliteratio (as AD-, littera letter)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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: Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. --Milton. Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. --Tennyson. 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. In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne, I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were. --P. Plowman.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(alliterations) Alliteration is the use in speech or writing of several words close together which all begin with the same letter or sound. (TECHNICAL) N-VAR

Moby Thesaurus

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