: a fixed verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines that are typically 5-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme
also
: a poem in this pattern
Examples of sonnet in a Sentence
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Seamus Heaney’s sonnets about Northern Ireland in the 1970s and Annie Ernaux’s memoirs of France in the 1960s propose indirect but approachable ways of engaging with personal and national history.
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Walt Hunter, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025
When women and men speaking Cervantes’ tongue are sent to concentration camps like the South Florida Detention Facility or CECOT, then what use is a sonnet?
—Ed Simon
september 22, Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025
To the west, the London Eye pirouettes above the skyline—to the east, Shakespeare’s Globe serves legendary sonnets.
—Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
Almost too passionately anguished, Austen is a sonnet played on the fortepiano, while Winslet is Liszt banged out on a Steinway.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 19 July 2025
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Walt Hunter, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025
When women and men speaking Cervantes’ tongue are sent to concentration camps like the South Florida Detention Facility or CECOT, then what use is a sonnet?
—Ed Simon
september 22, Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025
To the west, the London Eye pirouettes above the skyline—to the east, Shakespeare’s Globe serves legendary sonnets.
—Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
Almost too passionately anguished, Austen is a sonnet played on the fortepiano, while Winslet is Liszt banged out on a Steinway.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 19 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for sonnet
Cite this Entry
“Sonnet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sonnet. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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sonnet
noun
son·net
ˈsän-ət 
: a poem of 14 lines usually rhyming by a fixed scheme
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