Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. It creates internal music without the full echo of rhyme.

In the phrase “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain,” the long “a” sound binds the words together. Poets use assonance to link images, to slow or quicken the pace, or to produce a subtle mood. It appears in prose as well, though less conspicuously. Because English spelling is irregular, assonance depends on sound rather than letter; “lake” and “fate” assonate even though their vowels are spelled differently.

Assonance differs from alliteration, which repeats initial consonants, and from full rhyme, which matches both vowel and following consonant. It can be combined with either device for denser sonic texture. Overused, it becomes noticeable and distracting; handled lightly, it gives language a quiet cohesion that the ear registers even when the eye does not.

When the same vowel keeps sounding through a sequence of words, the pattern is assonance.