70+ Best Alliteration Examples: Enhance Your Writing Skills Today!

Alliteration is a great way to create a specific mood or add emphasis when writing! Read our guide with the best alliteration examples to inspire you.

Alliteration involves a series of words that begin with the same letter or sound. It’s a literary device commonly used in story-telling, and it can be found everywhere, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to brand names like Paypal and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Alliteration is a great way to add fun characters to writing and inject personality into brand marketing. But, it can be hard to spot alliteration when it’s used well; that’s why we’ve rounded up the best examples so you can check out how to implement alliteration successfully in your writing. Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this Grammarly review.

Alliteration Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are some of the best places to spot alliteration: repeating the first letters makes for a fun and fast challenge! Try out some of these for size.

1. She sells seashells on the seashore.
2. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers… where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
3. I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop.
4. Wayne went to Wales to watch walruses.
5. Which witch is which?
6. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

Alliteration in Character Names

Some of the most popular and well-known character names boast first and last names containing the same first letters. Below are just a small selection of these tremendous tags!

7. Lois Lane
8. Mickey Mouse
9. Donnie Darko
10. Benjamin Button
11. The Wicked Witch of the West
12. Miss Muffet
13. Luna Lovegood
14. Peter Pan

*(And it’d be remiss not to mention Enid Bylton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven, too!)

Alliteration in Song Lyrics

You may be surprised at how often song lyrics use repeated consonant sounds to add a powerful effect. Bands from The Beatles to Green Day have used alliteration to drive their narrative, set the mood, and emphasize elements of the song. Once you’re listening out for them, you’ll hear alliterative lyrics everywhere.

15. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be – The Beatles
16. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot – Joni Mitchell
17. And baby, now we’ve got bad blood – Taylor Swift
18. The salty lips of the socialist sisters – Elvis Costello
19. Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted – The Doors
20. Time will tell if we stand the test of time – Van Halen
21. For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while – Green Day
22. I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king – Frank Sinatra

Alliteration in Phrases in Poetry

Some of the most famous examples of alliteration in the English language can be found in poetry. Alliteration has long been used as a literary device to underscore rhythm, set the tone, and create flow.

23. Deep into the darkness peering – The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
24. I a waiting here to see / Which the winning one will be – Waiting at the Window, A.A. Milne
25. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes – Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
26. Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved – Paradise Lost, John Milton
27. And the balls like pulses beat; / For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
28. Where the smoke blows black – Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein
29. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies – Phenomenal Women, Maya Angelou
30. But the plural of pan is never pen – Why English is Hard to Learn, Anonymous
31. But at my back in a cold blast I hear – The Waste Land, T.S Eliot
32. Of maids and youths, old men, and matrons staid – The Prelude, William Wordsworth

Alliteration in Nursery Rhyme

It’s not just song lyrics and poetry that use alliteration – it can also be found in many nursery rhymes! The repeated consonant sounds make learning these rhymes easier and add a lilting quality to the rhythm of the lines.

33. Betty Botter bought some butter.
34. Wee Willy Winky ran through the town.
35. Sing a song of sixpence.
36. A sailor went to sea, sea, sea / To see what he could see see see.
37. Little Boy Blue come blow your horn.
38. Baa baa black sheep.

Alliteration in Novels

Authors typically deploy an arsenal of figurative language tools when writing a novel, and alliteration is just one of the strings to their literary bows. It can grab the reader’s attention, encouraging them to pay particular attention to a specific passage, support a simile or metaphor, or enhance the comedic effect! Learning how to tell stories isn’t always easy. If you’re looking for a course, check out our review of Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass.

39. …his appearance: something displeasing, something downright detestable – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
40. A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow – Conclusive Evidence, Vladimir Nabokov
41. The man took strong sharp sudden bites, just like the dog – Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
42. Inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
43. ‘Take a shovel,’ said Slim shortly – Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
44. To live was to leave behind – England Made Me, Graham Green
45. The boys began to babble – Lord of the Flies, William Golding
46. Fame is a fickle friend – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling

Alliteration in Novel Titles

If you’ve written a novel and are keen to see it stand out from the competition, then an alliterative title could be the way to go! All the below books stick in the reader’s mind due to their plots, characters – and memorable handles.

47. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
48. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
49. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
50. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
51. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
52. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
53. Nicholas Nickleby– Charles Dickens
54. Revolting Rhymes – Roald Dahl

Alliteration in Speeches

Some of the most famous speeches that have ever been delivered used alliteration to create an emotional response or connection with the audience or generate auditory interest.

54. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation – I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King Jr.
55. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth – 1863 Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln
56. We shall fight in the fields – We Shall Fight on the Beaches, Winston Churchill
57. They had that special grace, that special spirit – The Space Shuttle ‘Challenger’ Tragedy Address, Ronald Reagan

Alliteration in Brand Names

When it comes to brand names, alliterative words can help a business stick in people’s minds, boosting that all-important brand recognition factor and increasing market share.

58. Bed Bath & Beyond
59. Coca-Cola
60. Grey Goose
61. Best Buy
62. BarkBox

Alliteration in Slogans

It’s not just brand names – companies are also wise to the power of alliteration in marketing campaigns.

63. Don’t Dream it, Drive It – Jaguar
64. Intel Inside – Intel
65. The Daily Diary of the American Dream – Wall Street Journal
66. What We Want is Watney’s – Watney’s Bread
67. You’ll Never Put a Bit of Better Butter on Your Knife – Country Life Butter

Alliteration in Words and Sayings

You may not realize how often you use alliteration in your everyday life. Some of English’s most well-known and used sayings incorporate the same first consonant sounds.

68. Busy as a Bee
69. Mad as a March hare
70. Make a mountain out of a molehill
71. Right as rain
72. Pleased as punch
73. Mind over matter
74. A word to the wise

Tip! When editing for grammar, we also recommend taking the time to improve the readability score of a piece of writing before publishing or submitting it.

What is Assonance?

Alliteration and assonance are very similar: whereas alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, assonance relates to the repetition of vowel sounds in words’ stressed syllables. Examples of this device can also be found in many works of literature.

1. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary – The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
2. I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam I Am – Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss
3. Or if some time when roaming round – How to Tell Wild Animals, Carolyn Wells
4. My bounty is boundless as the sea – Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

What About Onomatopoeia?

Like alliteration, onomatopoeia is a literary device. It’s the use (or creation) of a word that sounds like, or suggests, the thing it’s describing. For example, the word ‘sizzle’ imitates the sound it relates to. It can help the reader immerse themselves in the story, and better visualize the scene.

Other examples of these words include crash, cuckoo, buzz, and hiss. Below are some examples of the use of onomatopoeia in poetry.

1. How they clang, clash, and roar / What a horror they outpour – The Bells, Edgar Allan Poe
2. Hark, hark! I hear / The strain of strutting chanticleer / Cry ‘cock-a-diddle-dow’! – The Tempest, William Shakespeare
3. There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling / Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling / Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering – The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Robert Browning
4. It SHUSHES / It hushes / The loudness in the road / It flitter-twitters / And laughs away from me – Cynthia in the Snow, Gwendolyn Brooks