anastrophe means unusual word order, often involving an inversion of the usual pattern of the sentence. It carries an Arena rating of 1632, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, anastrophe ranks #1,647 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,355 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,904 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,970 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
anastrophe is pronounced /əˈnæstɹəfi/.
Why “anastrophe” is a great word
ANASTROPHE — [Noun] A rhetorical figure involving the inversion of the usual or logical order of words in a sentence. From the Ancient Greek ἀναστροφή (anastrophḗ), from ἀνα- (ana-, "up, back") + στρέφω (stréphō, "to turn"), first attested in English in the 1570s. Unlike hyperbaton (a broader category for any departure from normal order) or inversion (a general grammatical term), anastrophe is the specific, deliberate wrenching of syntax for poetic emphasis. It is the bardic "arms and the man I sing," the prophetic "deep into that darkness peering," or the colloquial "echoed the hills"—a small, calculated dislocation that makes the ear stumble and the mind attend. Through this slight twist, the ordinary word gains a strange and sudden gravity.
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀναστροφή (anastrophḗ), from ἀνα- (ana-, “up”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).
noun
- Unusual word order, often involving an inversion of the usual pattern of the sentence.e.g.“Anastrophe often, by a pleasing change,
Gracefuly puts last the words that first should range.” — 1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Figures.] Anastrophe.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 43:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- anastrophic 81% match — Of or relating to an anastrophe; having an unusual word order. vs anastrophe →
- hyperbaton 74% match — An inversion of the usual or logical order of words or phrases, for emphasis or poetic effect. vs anastrophe →
- chiasmus 64% match — An inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases. vs anastrophe →
- epanastrophe 64% match — Anadiplosis. vs anastrophe →
- anacoluthon 64% match — A sentence or clause that is grammatically inconsistent, especially with respect to the type of clausal or phrasal complement for the initial clause. vs anastrophe →
- antimetabole 64% match — The technique of repeating a phrase while reversing the order of certain elements or its grammatical structure, as a form of juxtaposition. vs anastrophe →
- anteposition 63% match — The placing of something in front of something else, especially of words in a sentence. vs anastrophe →
- anaclasis 62% match — an exchange of place between a short syllable and a preceding long one that is frequent in Ionic metres. vs anastrophe →