consonance

UK: /ˈkɒnsənəns/ US: /ˈkɑnsənəns/ ,(kon′sə nəns)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

con•so•nance /ˈkɑnsənəns/   n. [uncountable]

1. accord or agreement.
2. correspondence of sounds;
   harmony of sounds.
3. Poetry a repetition of consonants, esp. those after a stressed vowel, as in march, lurch, but often of all the consonants, as in stick, stuck. Compare alliteration (def. 1).

See -son-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

con•so•nance  (kon′sə nəns), n. 

1. accord or agreement.
2. correspondence of sounds;
   harmony of sounds.
3. Music and Dance a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of repose. Cf. dissonance (def. 2). See illus. under resolution. 
4. Poetry [Pros.]
   • Poetry the correspondence of consonants, esp. those at the end of a word, in a passage of prose or verse. Cf. alliteration (def. 1).
   • Poetry the use of the repetition of consonants or consonant patterns as a rhyming device.
5. Physics the property of two sounds the frequencies of which have a ratio equal to a small whole number.

Also, con′so•nan•cy. 

• Latin consonantia concord. See consonant, -ance
• Anglo-French)
• Middle English (1350–1400

Synonyms

• 1. concord, harmony, correspondence.

Antonyms

• 1. dissonance.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

consonance / ˈkɒnsənəns/, consonancy noun ( -nances, -nancies)

1. agreement, harmony, or accord
2. similarity between consonants, but not between vowels, as between the s and t sounds in sweet silent thought
   Compare assonance1
3. an aesthetically pleasing sensation or perception associated with the interval of the octave, the perfect fourth and fifth, the major and minor third and sixth, and chords based on these intervals
   Compare dissonance3