alliteration Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse
    initial rhyme; head rhyme; beginning rhyme.
    • around the rock the ragged rascal ran

WordNet

Al*lit`er*a"tion noun
Etymology
L. ad + litera letter. See Letter.
Definitions
  1. 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.
    ✍ 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.

Webster 1913