Have you read poems and books, or heard tongue twisters wherein there are some words that have the same consonant sounds? They are called alliteration.
What is Alliteration?
Alliteration, a figure of speech and a stylistic literary device, is defined by Merriam Webster as the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables.
The term alliteration is derived from the Latin word latira which means letters of the alphabet.
How to Identify Alliteration
To spot alliteration in paragraphs or in poem verses, it is best if you would sound it out and listen if there are identical consonant sounds.
Examples of Alliteration
1. Examples of Alliteration from A to Z
- Abigail’s Aunt Alice ate apples and applesauce around April.
- Barney’s blue bag has been broken by Bart’s beagle Barry.
- Carla’s car crashed and clanked on the cacti.
- Dylan’s dog Dawson drank in the dirty dam.
- Elise’s easter eggs are elegant.
- Francis’ father fried french fries using forest fire.
- Gary, the guard, guided the goose to Germany.
- Honey’s honeybees have horrible honeycombs.
- Isabel’s igloos are shaped like ice cream.
- Jamaica is jogging joyfully around Jacksonville.
- Kim Kardashian’s sister Khloe has kids, too.
- Lauren’s leopard leggings look lackluster.
- Marjorie’s mother momentarily moped about the moldings.
- Nina’s neighbor needed newly cooked nachos.
- Ophelia’s overalls opened on its own.
- Paul’ pet pig Patty looks pretty and pristine.
- Quentin’s quietly and quickly queued.
- Ron ran around the room for no reason.
- Savannah, the soulful singer, sang another soulful song.
- Tinkerbell likes to tinker with tools.
- Uriel’s union used an unnecessary number of umbrellas.
- Veronica vexed Vivian.
- Walt went for a walk while walking his dog Waldo.
- Yves yelled at his sister Ysabel while yanking the yoga mat.
- Zac liked the zoo and the zoo animals.
2. Examples of Alliteration in Literature
- “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary… While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping… For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore… And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” – The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- “Closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet” – The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- “Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees’ cheese freeze.
That’s what made these three free fleas sneeze.” – Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
- “Three grey geese in a green field grazing. Grey were the geese and green was the grazing.” – Three Grey Geese by Mother Goose
- “One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”– Death Be Not Proud by John Donne
- “All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; dazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.” – Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins
- “Great Aunt Nellie and Brent Bernard who watch with wild wonder at the wide window as the beautiful birds begin to bite into the bountiful birdseed.” – Thank You for the Thistle by Dorie Thurston
- “Betty Botter bought some butter,
but, she said, the butter’s bitter;
if I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter,
but a bit of better butter will make my batter better.
So she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter,
and she put it in her batter and the batter was not bitter.
So ’twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.” – Betty Botter by Carolyn Wells
- “A certain young fellow named Beebee; Wished to marry a lady named Phoebe; “But,” he said. “I must see; What the minister’s fee be; Before Phoebe be Phoebe Beebee.” – Mother Goose
- “I need not your needles, They’re needless to me, For kneading of needles, Were needless, you see; But did my neat trousers, But need to be kneed, I then should have need of your needles indeed.” – Baker’s Reply to the Needle Salesman by unknown
3. Examples of Alliteration in Tongue Twisters
- A good cook could cook as many cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.
- Black bug bit a big black bear. But where is the big black bear that the big black bug bit?
- Sheep should sleep in a shed.
- I saw a saw that could out saw any other saw I ever saw.
- A big bug bit the little beetle but the little beetle bit the big bug back.
- Show Shawn Sharon’s shabby shoes.
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck; If a woodchuck would chuck wood? A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck; If a woodchuck would chuck wood.
- Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep. The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed shilly-shallied south.
- These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack.
- I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s mate,
And I’m only plucking pheasants ’cause the pheasant plucker’s late.
I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s son,
And I’m only plucking pheasants till the pheasant pluckers come.
- A tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot
Said the two to the tutor
“Is it tougher to toot
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?”
- I cannot bear to see a bear
Bear down upon a hare.
When bare of hair he strips the hare,
Right there I cry, “Forbear!”
- If Freaky Fred Found Fifty Feet of Fruit
And Fed Forty Feet to his Friend Frank
How many Feet of Fruit did Freaky Fred Find?
- Did Dick Pickens prick his pinkie
Pickling cheap cling peaches in an inch of Pinch
Or framing his famed French finch photos?
- Dr. Johnson and Mr. Johnson,
After great consideration,
Came to the conclusion
That the Indian nation
Beyond the Indian Ocean
Is back in education
Because the chief occupation is cultivation.
- A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad’s heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn’t please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.
- Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep.
The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed
These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack;
Sheep should sleep in a shed.
- You’ve no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light’s light’s a slight light,
And tonight’s a night that’s light.
When a night’s light, like tonight’s light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.
- Of all the felt I ever felt,
I never felt a piece of felt
Which felt as fine as that felt felt,
When first I felt that felt hat’s felt.
- A flea and a fly in a flue
Said the fly “Oh what should we do”
Said the flea” Let us fly
Said the fly”Let us flee”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue
- If a Hottentot taught
A Hottentot tot to talk
Ere the tot could totter,
Ought the Hottentot tot
Be taught to say ought or naught
Or what ought to be taught ‘er?
- Ed Nott was shot and Sam Shott was not.
So it is better to be Shott than Nott.
Some say Nott was not shot.
But Shott says he shot Nott.
If the shot Shott shot shot Nott, Nott was shot.
But if the shot Shott shot shot Shott, the shot was Shott, not Nott.
However, the shot Shott shot shot not Shott – but Nott.
So, Ed Nott was shot and that’s hot! Is it not?
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
- A certain young fellow named Beebee
Wished to marry a lady named Phoebe
“But,” he said. “I must see
What the minister’s fee be
Before Phoebe be Phoebe Beebee”
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck would chuck wood?
A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck
If a woodchuck would chuck wood.
- I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought so much.
- A skunk sat on a stump.
The stump thought the skunk stunk.
The skunk thought the stump stunk .
What stunk the skunk or the stump?
- If one doctor doctors another doctor
Does the doctor who doctors the doctor
Doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors?
Or does the doctor doctor the way
The doctor who doctors doctors?
The doctoring doctor doctors the doctor the way
The doctoring doctor wants to doctor the doctor.
Not the way the doctored doctor wants to be doctored.
- Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now See’s saw sawed Soar’s seesaw
Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See’s saw
Before See sawed Soar’s seesaw,
See’s saw would not have sawed
So See’s saw sawed Soar’s seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
Just because See’s saw sawed
4. Examples of Alliteration in Brand Names and Personalities
- Chuckee Cheese’s
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Krispy Kreme
- Mickey Mouse
- Minnie Mouse
- Donald Duck
- Daisy Duck
- Peppa the Pig
- Porky Pig
- Fred Flintstone
- Donald Duck
- Spongebob Squarepants
- Seattle Seahawks
- Burt’s Bees
- Tater Tots.
- Bob the Builder
Why Is Alliteration Important for Kids
Kids will definitely benefit from lessons about alliteration because this will enhance their ability to focus and understand whatever they will read. They will also be able to identify how words are pronounced and know that there are some words that have variation in pronunciations. Alliteration will eventually make kids become faster readers, not just fast for the sake of reading but fast in terms of reading comprehension. You may also see alliteration examples for kids.