| assonance |
| Definition: Repeating or rhyming with similar sounding vowels. |
| Example: The murmuring of innumerable Berbers. |
| Etymology: The word ultimately derives from the Latin assonare, respond to (from ad, to + sonar, to sound). |
| OED: Its first OED citation is from 1727: "Assonance… where the words of a phrase, or a verse, have the same sound or termination, and yet make no proper rhyme." (Chambers Cycl. s.v., Assonance) |