ETYM Latin ad + litera letter. Related to Letter.
Use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse; SYN. initial rhyme, beginning rhyme, head rhyme.r /> Literary device wherein several or all words in phrase or sentence begin with same sound.
In poetry and prose, the use, within a line or phrase, of words beginning with the same sound, as in “Two tired toads trotting to Tewkesbury”. It was a common device in Old English poetry, and its use survives in many traditional phrases, such as dead as a doornail, pretty as a picture.