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:
[1913 Webster]
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
His vastness. --Milton.
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Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. --Tennyson.
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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.
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In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne,
I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were. --P.
Plowman.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
alliteration
n : 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: initial rhyme, beginning rhyme, head
rhyme]
WordNet (r) 2.0
36 Moby Thesaurus words for "alliteration":
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
beginning rhyme, head rhyme, initial rhyme
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