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Poetry elements/sound devices include alliteration, assonance, consonance, and rhyme. An example of a clue would be "assonance 3" for "code", "control", and "candy". I checked the rules, and I'm unsure. This is the most relevant rule:

Your clue must be about the meaning of the words. You can't use your clue to talk about the letters in a word or its position on the table. Gland is not a valid clue for ENGLAND. You can't tie BUG, BED, and BOW together with a clue like b: 3 nor with a clue like three: 3.

Unlike "b", "alliteration" actually lives up to its meaning as a hint that it's similar consonants at the beginning of words. However, the words "code", "control", and "candy" don't have anything to do with alliteration itself in the meaning. I suppose the line "You can't use your clue to talk about the letters in the word" makes it illegal, but it's fuzzy.

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    As stated in the various answers, the rule you quote definitely disallows alliteration etc. The reason for that rule, in my opinion, is to maintain replay value. There are 400 words in the base game, and many hundred more if you mix in various expansions; that's a lot of word combinations and most of them require you to think up new interesting links. But no matter how many thousands of words may be in your box, there are still only 26 letters and fewer common ones, so if clues like "alliteration" were allowed then they could be used far too often.
    – Benjamin Cosman
    Commented Jun 27, 2020 at 15:22
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    Nothing fuzzy about it. The meaning of "code" has nothing to do with "alliteration", as you note.
    – L. Scott Johnson
    Commented Jun 28, 2020 at 11:43

2 Answers 2

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The rule is that clues must be about the meaning of the word. Alliteration, assonance, consonance, and rhyme are all about the construction and pronunciation of the word, and have nothing to do with the meaning of the word, they would very much fall under the quoted rule and be illegal clues.

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As you quote, "Your clue must be about the meanings of the words." The "alliteration" clue is decidely not.

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