Anadiplosis is a rhetorical figure in which the last word (or words) of one clause, sentence, or line is repeated at the beginning of the following clause, sentence, or line. It carves itself by its structural pattern (terminal repetition producing a chain-link effect), its scope (intra-textual, requiring at least two adjacent units), and its function (building intensity, creating emphasis through recursive looping, forging causal or associative chains). It persists through teaching (a standard figure in rhetorical handbooks from antiquity through the Renaissance), literary practice (used deliberately by poets and orators), and popular discourse (proverbs, sermons, political speeches exploit its hypnotic cadence). [formal: anadiplosis | substrate: mind | horizon: centuries | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
anadiplosis
Anadiplosis is a rhetorical figure in which the last word (or words) of one clause, sentence, or line is repeated at the beginning of the following clause, sentence, or line. It carves itself by its structural pattern (terminal repetition…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A rhetorical figure in which the final word of a clause or sentence is repeated as the first word of the following clause — e.g. 'The fear of death follows death, and the fear of death breeds cowardice.' A human-made rhetorical construct that persists through rhetorical education, literary composition, and oral performance.
Names and aliases
- anadiplosisen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrtfjde400049zhnv4xb5z4fINSTANCE_OF →
Anadiplosis (repeating the last word of one clause at the start of the next) is a specific kind of figure of speech. A competent speaker accepts anadiplosis as a figure of speech. Nearest kind.
- cms78tcq900wfa34cou8pgdf5INSTANCE_OF →
Law 9 test: is anadiplosis a specific kind of rhetorical figure? Yes — anadiplosis is 'the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.' A competent speaker would call it 'a rhetorical figure.' This is the nearest kind.
- cmrmf7wqp001sd1nlgdko4rbiSERVES →
Law 8d: for whose sake? Anadiplosis is, by its accepted definition, a rhetorical figure whose function is 'building intensity, creating emphasis through' terminal repetition — it is designed and maintained for the sake of rhetoric, the art of designing communication to produce a desired effect on an audience. Same pinned sense the board already accepts for metaphor, hyperbole, irony, metonymy: the figure serves the art of persuasion. Removal test of purpose: without rhetorical (emphatic) purpose, chaining the last word into the next clause is mere repetition, not anadiplosis.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 30, 2026, 2:08 AM UTC
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- dbcee662d92017ad6830fb7b217a73d655efb782442c0ab98b05756ed0e6bc00