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Literature Glossary

Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.

Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.

Consonance

Definition:

A kind of alliteration, consonance happens when consonant sounds are repeated. While the consonants stay the same, the vowels can change. Stella levels the laughter with an alarming leer. Hear all those L sounds? That's consonance. Are you able to abide by our bubbly babbling?

For more, see our discussion of consonance and assonance (kind of like consonance but with vowels) in Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem "Spring."