n. the resemblance of sound between two syllables in nearby words, arising from the rhyming of two or more accented vowels, but not consonants, or the use of identical consonants with different vowels, e.g. sonnet, porridge, and killed, cold, culled.
Derivatives:
assonant adj. assonate v.intr.
Etymology: F f. L assonare respond to (as AD-, sonus sound)