alliteration

«alliteration» in Mova's school dictionary: when several words close together start with the same… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (alliteration, uncountable; an alliteration, alliterations — an example of it)

meaning for a pupil

1) Alliteration is when several words close together start with the same sound, like «Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers». tree →

2) An alliteration is one example of this in a poem, story, title or slogan. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and poetry lessons alliteration is a technique pupils spot and use to make writing fun to read aloud, memorable or dramatic: «the slithering, slimy snake». Tongue-twisters, brand names (Coca-Cola, PayPal) and cartoon names (Mickey Mouse, Peppa Pig) use it. In reading tests you may be asked to find and name it and say what effect it has. Phrases: use alliteration, an example of alliteration.

examples

• «Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven sheep» is alliteration. tree →
• The poet used alliteration to make the wind sound wild. tree →
• Peppa Pig and Donald Duck have alliterative names. tree →
• Find two examples of alliteration in the poem. tree →
• Our class wrote alliteration about animals: «busy buzzing bees». tree →
• Alliteration makes slogans easy to remember. tree →
• The headline «Messi's Magic Moment» uses alliteration. tree →
• Too much alliteration can make a sentence sound silly. tree →

note

Mostly uncountable: «The poem uses alliteration.» Adjective: «alliterative». Trap: alliteration is about the first SOUND, not the first letter: «cat» and «king» alliterate (both /k/), but «cat» and «cello» do not. Do not confuse with rhyme (same ending sounds: cat, hat) or assonance (same vowel sounds inside words) or onomatopoeia (words that sound like the noise they name).

In the corpora

• Poets paint pictures with words, and they have a few favourite tricks: the simile, the metaphor, personification and alliteration.
• Alliteration is the same first sound repeated in words close together: "big brown bear", "slithering snakes slide silently".

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «alliteration» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.