Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A 14-line verse form often in iambic pentameter, having one of several conventional rhyme schemes and usually featuring a shift in mood or tone after the eighth or twelfth line.
  • noun A poem in this form.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A song; a ballad; a short poem.
  • noun Specifically A short poem in fixed form, limited to fourteen lines with a prescribed disposition of rimes.
  • To celebrate in sonnets.
  • To cover or fill with sonnets.
  • To compose sonnets.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To compose sonnets.
  • noun obsolete A short poem, -- usually amatory.
  • noun A poem of fourteen lines, -- two stanzas, called the octave, being of four verses each, and two stanzas, called the sestet, of three verses each, the rhymes being adjusted by a particular rule.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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 intransitive To compose sonnets.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb compose a sonnet
  • noun a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
  • verb praise in a sonnet

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French or Italian sonetto (French, from Italian), from Old Provençal sonet, diminutive of son, song, from Latin sonus, a sound; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Italian sonetto

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sonnet.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "...Come, thou Fount of every blessing

    Tune my heart to sing thy grace;

    Streams of mercy, never ceasing

    Call for songs of loudest praise

    Teach me some melodious sonnet

    Sung by flaming tongues above

    Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it

    Mount of thy redeeming love..."

    January 10, 2018