This week's theme
Words that sound dirty, but aren't

This week's words
hortatory
formicate
assonance
inspissate
cocker

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(AS-uh-nuhns)

MEANING:

noun: The use of words with same or similar vowel sounds but with different end consonants.
Example: The o sounds in Wordsworth's "A host, of golden daffodils."

ETYMOLOGY:

Via French, from Latin ad- (to) + sonare (to sound), from sonus (sound). Ultimately from the Indo-European root swen- (to sound), which also gave us sound, sonic, sonnet, sonata, and unison. Earliest documented use: 1728.

USAGE:

"The passage offers many beauties: the nearly incantatory repetition, the assonance (define and confine, streets and treat, space and faces), the homophones (rains and reins -- but not reigns?), the pun (no sign of motorway)."
Kevin Dettmar; Less Is Morrissey; The Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, DC); Dec 9, 2013.

See more usage examples of assonance in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: