English Explanatory Dictionary

sonnet

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A fixed verse form of Italian origin consisting of fourteen lines that are typically five-foot iambics and rhyme according to one of a few prescribed schemes.
verb
  1. To compose sonnets.
  2. To celebrate in sonnets; to write a sonnet about.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɒnɪt/ /ˈsʌnɪt/ en-us-sonnet.ogg

Word forms

sonnet sonnets sonneting sonnetting sonneted sonnetted

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French sonnet, from Italian sonetto, from Old Occitan sonet (“a song”), diminutive of son (“song, sound”), from Latin sonus (“sound”).

Related words

poem caudate sonnet curtal sonnet English sonnet Italian sonnet Scottish sonnet quatorzain

Derived words

crown of sonnets Elizabethan sonnet Petrarchan sonnet Shakespearean sonnet sonnetary sonneteer sonneter sonnetic sonnetish sonnetist sonnetize sonnetlike sonnetry sonnettomaniac sonnetwise Spenserian sonnet
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