Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Sonnet

Definition: Sonnet

Sonnet

Noun

1. A verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme.

Verb

1. Praise in a sonnet.

2. Compose a sonnet.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "sonnet" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1532. (references)


Specialty Definition: Sonnet

DomainDefinition

Literature

Sonnet Prince of the sonnet. Joachim du Bellay, a French sonneteer (1524-1560); but Petrarch better deserves the title. (1334-1374.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Sonnet

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The sonnet is a traditional poem of 14 lines following a strict rhyme scheme, that has changed during its history.

In its original 13th-century Italian variant the sonnet was divided into a octave of eight lines and a sestet of six lines. The octave rhymed abbaabba. For the sestet there were different possibilities like cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce. The most famous writer of Italian sonnets is Petrarch.

In the sixteenth century the sonnet became popular in England. The form changed to three quatrains of four lines and a couplet of two lines. Usual rhyme schemes were abab cdcd efef gg and abab bcbc cdcd ee. One of the first poets to write sonnets in English was Sir Thomas Wyatt. (See Shakespearean sonnet. It is also known as Elizabethan sonnet.)

A classic rule of thumb for the writing or reading of a Shakespearean sonnet is to have the final couplet make a sharp thematic or imagistic "turn."

Along with his wonderful plays, Shakespeare is well known for his many sonnets, such as Sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring barque,
Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken.

Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

See Shakespeare's Sonnets for details.

See also

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sonnet."

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Synonym: Sonnet

Synonym: song. (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Sonnet

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Poetry

Poem; epic, epic poem; epopee, epopoea, ode, epode, idyl, lyric, eclogue, pastoral, bucolic, dithyramb, anacreontic, sonnet, roundelay, rondeau, rondo, madrigal, canzonet, cento, monody, elegy; amoebaeum, ghazal, palinode.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Sonnet

English words defined with "sonnet": analyse, analyzecanvassElizabethan sonnet, English sonnet, examineItalian sonnetPetrarchan sonnetQuatorzainShakespearean sonnet, Sir Thomas Wyat, Sir Thomas Wyatt, song thrush, Spenserian sonnet, studyWyat, Wyatt. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Sonnet" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

French (sonnet).

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Modern Usage: Sonnet

DomainUsage

Screenplays

I loved a writer and gave up the prize for a sonnet. (Shakespeare in Love; writing credit: Marc Norman; Tom Stoppard)

I want you all to right your own version of this sonnet. (10 Things I Hate About You; writing credit: Karen McCullah Lutz; Kirsten Smith)

Movie/TV Titles

Akai kiba Blue Sonnet (1990)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Sonnet

DomainTitle

Books

  • A Sonnet for Shasta (reference)

  • Late Sonnet Harvest, 1988-2000 (reference)

  • Manhattan Sonnet (reference)

  • The Birth of the Modern Mind: Self, Consciousness, and the Invention of the Sonnet (reference)

  • The Dynamics of Tonal Shift in the Sonnet (Studies in Comparative Literature, 31) (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

  

High Tech

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Sonnet

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

Pogo]. Now if you writes a love ballad or a sonnet for ol' Deacon -. Credit: Library of Congress.

The town scold : sonnet. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Use in Literature: Sonnet

TitleAuthorQuote

Time Enough for Love

Robert Heinlein

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Sonnet

"Sonnet" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.10% of the time. "Sonnet" is used about 154 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)96.1%14825,903
Noun (proper)3.9%6143,867
                    Total100.00%154N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Sonnet

Expressions using "sonnet": elizabethan sonnet english sonnet italian sonnet petrarchan sonnet shakespearean sonnet spenserian sonnet. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "sonnet": sonnet-settings, sonnet-writers.

Ending with "sonnet": love-sonnet.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sonnet

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

sonnet

963

example sonnet

18

shakespeare sonnet

504

sonnet 29

17

sonnet poem

108

shakespeare sonnet 29

16

love sonnet

95

english sonnet

15

saab sonnet

56

43 sonnet

13

william shakespeare sonnet

50

pablo neruda sonnet

13

shakespearean sonnet

50

shakespeare sonnet 130

12

write sonnet

44

sonnet from the portuguese

12

sonnet 18

40

definition sonnet

11

italian sonnet

39

73 sonnet

11

116 sonnet

36

petrarch sonnet

10

sonnet technology

34

form sonnet

10

shakespeare sonnet 18

28

ending italian section sonnet

10

sonnet poetry

27

sonnet card

9

shakespeare love sonnet

27

shakespearian sonnet

9

shakespeare sonnet 116

26

73 shakespeare sonnet

9

sonnet 130

22

bright eyes lyrics perfect sonnet

9

petrarchan sonnet

21

sonnet by shakespeare

9

sonnet tech

19

30 sonnet

8

sonnet writing

18

pablo neruda love sonnet

8
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Sonnet

Language Translations for "sonnet"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

sonet. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏السونيتة قصيدة من ‎14 ‏بيتا. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

сонет. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

十四行詩 . (various references)

   

Czech

  

sonet, znìlka (call sign, signature tune). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

غزل یاقطعه شعر41سطری , غزل (Ode). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

sonetti. (various references)

   

French

  

sonnet. (various references)

   

German

  

Sonett. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

σονέττο, ασμάτιο (popular song). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

szonett. (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

soneta. (various references)

   

Italian

  

sonetto. (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

ソナタ形式 (couch, sofa, soft, soft drink, soft hat, soft serve ice cream, softball, software, software-stack, sonata form, Sony, Soviet Union). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

ソネット . (various references)

   

Manx

  

sonnad. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

onnetsay

   

Portuguese

  

soneto. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

sonet. (various references)

   

Russian 

  

сонет. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

sonet. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

soneto. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

sonett. (various references)

   

Thai

  

โคลง 14 บรรทั"ซึ่งมีรูปแบบการสัมผัสตายตัว. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

sone, on dört mısralı şiir. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

сонет. (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

b i thơ xonê. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

soned. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Sonnet

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

sonus. (various references)

Old Provenal900-1500

sonet. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Sonnet

Derivations

Words beginning with "sonnet": sonneted, sonneteer, sonneteering, sonneteerings, sonneteers, sonneting, sonnets, sonnetted, sonnetting. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Sonnet" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: connet, Connett, donnet, onett, Sannat, sannit, Sannuto, sendeth, senet, Sennet, sinnen, sinnett, snone, sone, sonet, sonit, sonne, sonner, sonneta, sonnett, sonnety, Sonnex, sonni, sonst, sornet, sownen, sunent, sunne, zonet. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Sonnet"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "sonnet" (pronounced sÄ"net)
3-n e tBurnet, Genet, signet.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Sonnet

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: nonets, tenons, tonnes.

Words within the letters "e-n-n-o-s-t"

-1 letter: neons, nones, nonet, notes, onset, seton, steno, stone, tenon, tones, tonne.

-2 letters: eons, neon, nest, nets, noes, none, nose, note, ones, sent, snot, sone, tens, toes, tone, tons.

-3 letters: ens, eon, net, nos, not, oes, one, ons, ose, sen, set, son, sot, ten, toe, ton.

-4 letters: en, es, et, ne, no, oe, on, os.

 Words containing the letters "e-n-n-o-s-t"
 

+1 letter: bonnets, consent, intones, nektons, neuston, newtons, sonnets, tendons, tension, tonners.

 

+2 letters: bonniest, centones, concents, connects, connotes, consents, contemns, contends, contents, convents, enations, endnotes, enterons, inkstone, insolent, intoners, mentions, montanes, negatons, neonates, neustons, neutrons, nonguest, nonstyle, nontaxes, notornes, pentosan, resonant, rontgens, sonatine, sonneted, sternson, sunstone, tenoners, tensions, ternions, tinstone, tonnages, tonneaus, tontines, townsmen, unstoned.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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Alternative Orthography: Sonnet


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

53 6F 6E 6E 65 74

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

...    ---    -.    -.    .    -

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01110100

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#83 &#111 &#110 &#110 &#101 &#116

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0053 006F 006E 006E 0065 0074

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

538180807186

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Quotations: Fiction
8. Usage Frequency
9. Expressions
10. Expressions: Internet
11. Translations: Modern
12. Translations: Ancient
13. Derivations
14. Rhymes
15. Anagrams
16. Orthography
17. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.