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repetition

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Definition:

An instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage--dwelling on a point. Needless or unintentional repetition (a tautology or pleonasm) is a kind of clutter that may distract or bore a reader. Used deliberately, repetition can be an effective rhetorical strategy for achieving emphasis. See the different types of rhetorical repetition below. See also:

Types of Rhetorical Repetition With Examples:

  • Anadiplosis
    Repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next.
    "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, Richard III)

  • Anaphora
    Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
    "I want her to live. I want her to breathe. I want her to aerobicize."
    (Weird Science, 1985)

  • Antistasis
    Repetition of a word in a different or contrary sense.
    "A kleptomaniac is a person who helps himself because he can't help himself."
    (Henry Morgan)

  • Commoratio
    Emphasizing a point by repeating it several times in different words.
    "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
    (Douglass Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979)

  • Diacope
    Repetition broken up by one or more intervening words.
    "A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
    And no one can talk to a horse of course
    That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed."
    (Theme song of 1960s TV program Mr. Ed)

  • Epanalepsis
    Repetition at the end of a clause or sentence of the word or phrase with which it began.
    "Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow,
    How can thine heart be full of the spring?"
    (Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Itylus")

  • Epimone
    Frequent repetition of a phrase or question; dwelling on a point.
    "And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of the rock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover the actions of the man. . . .

    "And the man sat upon the rock, and leaned his head upon his hand, and looked out upon the desolation. . . . And I lay close within shelter of the lilies, and observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled in the solitude;--but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock."
    (Edgar Allan Poe, "Silence")

  • Epiphora
    Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses.
    "She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised."
    (Jack Sparrow, The Pirates of the Caribbean)

  • Epizeuxis
    Repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis, usually with no words in between.
    "If you think you can win, you can win."
    (William Hazlitt)

  • Ploce
    Repetition of a word with a new or specified sense, or with pregnant reference to its special significance.
    "If it wasn't in Vogue, it wasn't in vogue."
    (promotional slogan for Vogue magazine)

  • Polyptoton
    Repetition of words derived from the same root but with different endings.
    "I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."
    (George W. Bush, April 2006)

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