Home › Glossary › Letter A

Assonant tercet

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A three-line stanza linked by vowel sound repetition rather than full rhyme

Detailed Definition
An assonant tercet is a three-line stanza unified by assonance—repetition of vowel sounds—rather than full rhyme, creating a subtle sonic cohesion; common in Spanish and French poetry, it offers musicality without the rigidity of end-rhyme, as seen in works by Federico García Lorca or Paul Verlaine.
Example
Example in poetry:
Assonant tercet in Auden: "The night / is bright / with fright"; Plath’s "Daddy" uses slant assonance: "I made a model of you, / A man in black with a Meinkampf look"; Contemporary example: "She dreams / in streams / of cream"; Medieval troubadour lyrics often employed vowel echoes in tercets without full rhyme; In Spanish poetry, assonant tercets (tercetos asonantes) link lines through repeated vowel sounds like "luna," "cura," "duda"
Additional Notes
Three-line unit linked by assonance rather than full rhyme. Related to tercet and slant rhyme techniques. Creates subtler sound connection than rhymed tercet. Useful for softer musical effects.
Also Known As
Assonant triplet vowel-rhymed tercet vocalic tercet three-line vowel rhyme
Skip to main content