SONNET

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sonnet mean? 

• SONNET (noun)
  The noun SONNET has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: SONNET used as a noun is very rare.

• SONNET (verb)
  The verb SONNET has 2 senses:

1. praise in a sonnet

2. compose a sonnet

  Familiarity information: SONNET used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SONNET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("sonnet" is a kind of...):

poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sonnet"):

Italian sonnet; Petrarchan sonnet (a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd)

Elizabethan sonnet; English sonnet; Shakespearean sonnet (a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg)

Spenserian sonnet (a sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab bcbd cdcd ee)

Derivation:

sonnet (compose a sonnet)

sonnet (praise in a sonnet)

sonneteer (a poet who writes sonnets)

• SONNET (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Praise in a sonnet

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "sonnet" is one way to...):

praise (express approval of)

Domain category:

poesy; poetry; verse (literature in metrical form)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

sonnet (a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Compose a sonnet

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "sonnet" is one way to...):

poetise; poetize; verse; versify (compose verses or put into verse)

Domain category:

poesy; poetry; verse (literature in metrical form)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

sonnet (a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme)

 Context examples 

But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

What was the last sonnet about?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Those two beautiful sonnets that you transmuted into the cow that was accounted the worst milker in the township.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Didn’t Lang include your ‘Kiss Endured’ among the four supreme sonnets by women in the English language?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

So far her improvement was sufficient—and in many other points she came on exceedingly well; for though she could not write sonnets, she brought herself to read them; and though there seemed no chance of her throwing a whole party into raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte, of her own composition, she could listen to other people's performance with very little fatigue.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The sweet scenes of autumn were for a while put by, unless some tender sonnet, fraught with the apt analogy of the declining year, with declining happiness, and the images of youth and hope, and spring, all gone together, blessed her memory.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

In his battle with the sonnet he had forgotten her existence, and at the sound of her voice his love for her smote him like a sudden blow.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And so I gazed upon Maud’s light-brown hair, and loved it, and learned more of love than all the poets and singers had taught me with all their songs and sonnets.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Such words had their due effect; she immediately thought the evening pleasanter than she had found it before—her humble vanity was contented—she felt more obliged to the two young men for this simple praise than a true-quality heroine would have been for fifteen sonnets in celebration of her charms, and went to her chair in good humour with everybody, and perfectly satisfied with her share of public attention.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Always, as soon as he received his liberty, he fled away, and always he fled north. He was possessed of an obsession that drove him north. The homing instinct, Irvine called it, after he had expended the selling price of a sonnet in getting the animal back from northern Oregon.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)