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Antonyms for sonnet


Grammar : Noun
Spell : son-it
Phonetic Transcription : ˈsɒn ɪt



Definition of sonnet

Origin :
  • 1557 (in title of Surrey's poems), from Middle French sonnet (1540s) or directly from Italian sonetto, literally "little song," from Old Provençal sonet "song," diminutive of son "song, sound," from Latin sonus "sound" (see sound (n.1)).
  • Originally in English also "any short lyric poem;" precise meaning is from Italian, where Petrarch (14c.) developed a scheme of an eight-line stanza (rhymed abba abba) followed by a six-line stanza (cdecde, the Italian sestet, or cdcdcd, the Sicilian sestet). Shakespeare developed the English Sonnet for his rhyme-poor native tongue: three Sicilian quatrains followed by a heroic couplet (ababcdcdefefgg). The first stanza sets a situation or problem, and the second comments on it or resolves it.
  • As in ode : noun poem
  • As in poem : noun highly expressive, rhythmical literary piece
  • As in verse : noun written composition
  • As in poesy : noun poem
Example sentences :
  • I must needs try my new-fledged pinions in sonnet, elogy, and madrigal.
  • Extract from : « Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9) » by Samuel Richardson
  • Shakespeare told us the truth about himself when he wrote in sonnet 142, "Love is my sin."
  • Extract from : « The Man Shakespeare » by Frank Harris
  • Take any sonnet at haphazard, and you will hear the rage of his desire.
  • Extract from : « The Man Shakespeare » by Frank Harris
  • It contrasts "foe and friend," just as the sonnet contrasts "love and hate."
  • Extract from : « The Man Shakespeare » by Frank Harris
  • In Sonnet 136 he prays her to allow him to be one of her lovers.
  • Extract from : « The Man Shakespeare » by Frank Harris
  • Here we have "the pretty follies" which is used again as "pretty wrongs" in sonnet 41.
  • Extract from : « The Man Shakespeare » by Frank Harris
  • He also gave me a copy of the sonnet and a tracing of his son's photograph.
  • Extract from : « My Double Life » by Sarah Bernhardt
  • That Tasso had a cat we know because he wrote a sonnet to her.
  • Extract from : « Concerning Cats » by Helen M. Winslow
  • This Sonnet was sent in a letter to Southey, dated December 11, 1794.
  • Extract from : « The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge » by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • The sonnet was sent in a letter to Southey, dated December 11, 1794.
  • Extract from : « The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge » by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Synonyms for sonnet

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019