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

Definition: Sonnet |
SonnetNoun1. A verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme. Verb1. 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) |
| Domain | Definition |
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. | |
(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:
See also
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sonnet."
Synonym: SonnetSynonym: song. (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms 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. | |
Crosswords: Sonnet |
| English words defined with "sonnet": analyse, analyze ♦ canvass ♦ Elizabethan sonnet, English sonnet, examine ♦ Italian sonnet ♦ Petrarchan sonnet ♦ Quatorzain ♦ Shakespearean sonnet, Sir Thomas Wyat, Sir Thomas Wyatt, song thrush, Spenserian sonnet, study ♦ Wyat, Wyatt. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Sonnet" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. French (sonnet). |
| Domain | Usage | |
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. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & 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. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
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. | ||
| "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 Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.1% | 148 | 25,903 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.9% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Total | 100.00% | 154 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
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. | |
| 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. |
| 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 soneto. (various references) sonet. (various references) сонет. (various references) sonet. (various references) soneto. (various references) sonett. (various references) โคลง 14 บรรทั"ซึ่งมีรูปแบบการสัมผัสตายตัว. (various references) sone, on dört mısralı şiir. (various references) сонет. (various references) b i thơ xonê. (various references) soned. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | sonus. (various references) |
| Old Provenal | 900-1500 | sonet. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sonnet": sonneted, sonneteer, sonneteering, sonneteerings, sonneteers, sonneting, sonnets, sonnetted, sonnetting. (additional references) | |
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"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). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sonnet" (pronounced sÄ"net) |
| 3 | -n e t | Burnet, Genet, signet. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
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. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 6F 6E 6E 65 74 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)... --- -. -. . - |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01110100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S o n n e t |
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)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)538180807186 |
| 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.