Alliteration facts for kids

Alliteration is a cool trick with words where many words in a sentence or phrase start with the same sound. It's like a tongue twister! You'll often find it in ads, poetry, headlines, and those fun tongue-twisters. Basically, the first sound of words repeats itself.

Alliteration is very common in poetry. It was used over a thousand years ago in old Anglo-Saxon poems. A great example comes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

See how the "f" sound repeats? Robert Browning also used alliteration a lot. He used it in his poem Summum bonum. This is a Latin phrase that means "all the best."

All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:

Where Do We See Alliteration?

Alliteration is used in many places today. You can find it in:

• Modern music
• Magazine article titles
• Advertisements
• Business names
• Comic strip or cartoon characters
• Common sayings
• Book titles

For example, "Sally sold sea shells by the sea shore" is a classic alliteration. In the show Death Note, the detective L's real name is L Lawliet.

Alliteration in Character Names

Often, characters in books have names with alliteration. Many names in Harry Potter use it, like Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. In Hairspray, most characters' names also use alliteration. Examples include Tracy Turnblad and Link Larkin.

Alliteration in Book Titles

Book titles sometimes use alliteration too. All but one of the thirteen books in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events have alliterative titles. Another example is William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost.

Alliteration is also great for children's books that teach letters. Animalia by Graeme Base is famous for using alliteration. It goes through each letter of the alphabet.

Alliteration in Places and Games

You might see alliteration in:

• Places in books: Like Bat Barn or Vampire Village.
• Code names: The names for the Linux distribution Ubuntu, such as Breezy Badger.
• Game Titles: For example, Prince of Persia.

Brand Names and Alliteration

Companies use alliteration all the time! The main reason is to make their brand name easy to remember. Think of these famous brands:

• Dunkin’ Donuts
• PayPal
• Best Buy
• Coca-Cola
• LifeLock
• Krispy Kreme

Famous People and Alliteration

Alliterative names can also help people stand out. Both real people and fictional characters might be easier to remember because of their names.

• Ronald Reagan
• Sammy Sosa
• Mickey Mouse
• Porky Pig
• Donald Duck
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Seattle Seahawks
• Katie Couric (Remember, words don't always need to start with the same letter, just the same sound!)

Phrases and Quotes

Many famous phrases and sayings also use alliteration. These are often fun to say and easy to remember:

• Busy as a bee
• Dead as a doornail
• Good as gold
• Home sweet home
• Last laugh
• Living the life
• Mad as a March hare
• Method to the madness
• Neck and neck
• Pleased as punch
• Right as rain

Alliteration is used a lot because it makes sentences more interesting. It's also a great way to help you remember names and phrases. It's a very fun and useful literary device!

Images for kids

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  Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado has a well-known example of alliterative lyrics: "To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, In a pestilential prison, with a lifelong lock, Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock, From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!"

See also

In Spanish: Aliteración para niños