Definition:
A rhetorical term for a sentence construction in which the last word of one clause becomes the first of the next, through three or more clauses (an extended form of anadiplosis).
See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "climax."Examples:
- "They call for you: The general who became a slave; the slave who became a gladiator; the gladiator who defied an Emperor. Striking story."
(Joaquin Phoenix in the film Gladiator, 2000) - "The only graceful way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved."
(Russell Lynes) - "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
(Paul, Romans 5:3) - "If you sow a thought, you reap an act. If you sow an act, you reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you reap a character. And if you sow a character, you reap a destiny."
(anonymous, quoted by Samuel Smiles in Life and Labor, 1887) - "She abandoned religion for mesmerism, mesmerism for politics, and politics for the melodramatic excitements of philanthropy."
(Vivian in Oscar Wilde’s "The Decay of Lying," 1891) - "Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD."
(William Paley, Natural Theology, 1963) - "All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God."
(T. S. Eliot, Chorus from The Rock, 1934) - "It takes an egg to make a hen
It takes a hen to make an egg
There is no end to what I'm saying
It takes a thought to make a word
And it takes a word to make an action."
(Jason Mraz, "Life is Wonderful") - "My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain."
(William Shakespeare, King Richard III, 1591?) - "[F]or your brother and my sister no sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they
loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no
sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before marriage . . .."
(Rosalind to Orlando in William Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act Five, scene 2)
Pronunciation: gra-DA-see-o
Also Known As: incrementum and "the marching figure" (Puttenham)
