Alliteration Examples: Meaning and Everyday

Use
Alliteration is a literary device in which a series of words begin with the same consonant sound.
It's used to emphasize something important that a writer or speaker would like to express. Take a
look at these alliteration examples, and explore how they affect the sentence.

How to Identify Alliteration

The best way to spot alliteration in a sentence is to sound out the sentence, looking for the words
with identical beginning consonant sounds. Alliterative words don't have to start with the same
letter, just the same initial sound. They can also be interrupted by small, non-alliterative words.

For example, "James and the Giant Peach" is still an example of alliteration, even though it uses
both "j" and "g" and includes the words "and" and "the." Read through these sentences to help
you identify alliteration.

 Becky's beagle barked and bayed, becoming bothersome for Billy.

 Can you keep the cat from clawing the couch? It's creating chaos.
 Dan's dog dove deep in the dam, drinking dirty water as he dove.
 Fred's friends fried fritters for Friday's food.
 Greedy goats gobbled up gooseberries, getting good at grabbing the goodies.
 Hannah's home has heat now, hopefully.
 Jackrabbits jump and jiggle jauntily.
 Kim's kid kept kicking like crazy.
 Larry's lizard likes lounging on the land.
 Mike made mellow music with his new microphone.
 Nick's nephew needed some new notebooks.
 Peter's piglet pranced priggishly.
 Quincy's quilters quit quilting quickly.
 Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer rose rapidly into the air.
 Seven sisters slept soundly on the sand.
 Tim took tons of tools to make toys for the tots.
 Vivien is very vixen-like and vexing.
 While walking wearily I wondered where Wally was.
 Yarvis yanked his ankle at yoga, and Yolanda yelled out in surprise.
 Zachary zeroed in on zookeeping as a career.

Some of these sentences might sound like tongue twisters to you. In fact, tongue twisters often
use alliteration to try and trip readers up (such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers").

Alliteration in Brand Names

Companies use the alliterative effect all the time. Think of all of the famous and well-known
brands and companies that have used alliteration in their names.

 Bed Bath & Beyond

 Best Buy
 Chuck E. Cheese
 Coca-Cola
 Dunkin' Donuts
 Krispy Kreme
 LifeLock
 Lulu Lemon
 Park Place
 PayPal

The major reason companies use alliteration is to ensure their brand name is memorable. The
human brain likes the repetition of alliteration, making it easier to store in your memory.

Definition of Anaphora
Anaphora is a rhetorical device that features the repetition of a word
or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases, or clauses.
Anaphora works as a literary device to allow writers to convey, emphasize,
and reinforce meaning. This word repetition at the beginning of each phrase in
a group of sentences or clauses is a stylized technique that can be very
effective in speeches, lyrics, poetry, and prose.

One of the most famous uses of anaphora is the beginning of A Tale of Two

Cities by Charles Dickens. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the
season of Darkness…” Through repetition of the phrase “it was,” Dickens
reinforces to the reader that the time he is describing is a past filled with
oppositions and extremes.  In addition, the anaphora creates the effect for a
current reader that, while reading, it is that way in the present as well. As a
result, this allows the reader to engage immediately with the story.

Conversational Anaphora Examples

Anaphora is used in a conversational way to express emotion and as a means
of emphasizing or affirming a point or idea. Here are some examples of
conversational anaphora:

 “Go big or go home.”

 “Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.”
 “Get busy living or get busy dying.”
 “Give me liberty or give me death.”
 “You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.”
 “Stay safe. Stay well. Stay happy.”
 “So many places, so little time.”
 “I wish I may; I wish I might.”
 “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for
your country.”
 “Give much, give often, give freely.”
 “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
 “Run far, run fast.”
 “Monkey see, monkey do.”
 “Open heart, open mind.”
 “Great haste makes great waste.”