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alliteration

Pronunciation: /əlɪtəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/

Definition of alliteration

noun

[mass noun]
  • the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words: the alliteration of ‘sweet birds sang’ [count noun]:alliterations are clustered in the last few lines

Origin:

early 17th century: from medieval Latin alliteratio(n-), from Latin ad- (expressing addition) + littera 'letter'

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Spell alliteration and the related word alliterative with a double l.

alliteration in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of alliteration in the US English dictionary

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