Alliteration is a poetic technique in which the initial consonant sounds of words are repeated in close succession. To put it more simply: alliteration is when the beginning sounds of words repeat themselves.

“Tempted to type meaningless twaddle all the time on Twitter…with alliteration, no less!”   E.A. Bucchianeri

Alliteration is when the same sound is repeated several times sequentially in a sentence or even a paragraph. The words which sound the same  (usually because they all start with the same consonants, but sometimes they begin with the same sound although the consonants are different – for example, k and c can sound the same in words like cut and kitchen.

classic examples of alliteration

Let us go forth to lead the land we love.  J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural

Veni, vidi, vici. Julius Caesar

“Bicycles, bullock carts, and buses that belched thick, black smoke moved in anarchic streams with the auto rickshaws and cars along the streets. Many of the shops—normally selling everything from groceries to stainless steel cookware to shoes—stood silent behind shutters and honeycomb grilles.”  Ken Doyle.  Bombay Bhel

a few recent  examples, too:   (more can be seen here)

They would have been on time, if they didn’t dilly-dally.

He dunked the delicious donut in dairy creamer.

There is nothing but death in the desert during the day.

I woke up at school in a slobbery pool; though I used to be dry, now I’m drowning in drool.

I dreamt of a drip-dropping drain in my dream.

Although alliteration is often associated with literary language, it also appears in many common idioms and advertising slogans. Alliteration is a rhetorical trick that makes speech memorable and powerful. Alliteration is also a much used poetic technique in which the initial consonant sounds of words are repeated in close succession. To put it more simply: alliteration is when the beginning sounds of words repeat themselves.