epistrophe means the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. It carries an Arena rating of 1520, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, epistrophe ranks #1,793 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,571 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #3,267 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #4,279 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
epistrophe is pronounced /ɪˈpɪstrəfi/.
Why “epistrophe” is a great word
The repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. From the Latin epistrophē, borrowed from the Ancient Greek ἐπιστροφή (epistrophḗ), from epi- ("upon") + strophē ("a turning"), first recorded in English use in the 1640s. Unlike anaphora, which hammers a word at the start of each clause, or symploce, which frames a thought with repetition at both ends, epistrophe is an insistent return, a door pulled shut again and again. It is the tolling bell in "of the people, by the people, for the people"; the haunting echo in a litany of losses; the final, weighted stone placed at the end of each rising wall—language turning on its heel to find the same truth waiting behind it.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin epistrophē, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐπιστροφή (epistrophḗ).
noun
- The repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.e.g.“Epistrophe many sentences will close
With the same word, in verse as well as prose.” — 1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Turns.] Epistrophe.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 75:
- An arrangement of chlorophyll grains on the outer surface of plant cells, as opposed to apostrophe (an arrangement at right angles to the surface).e.g.“As is well known, chloroplast in the epistrophe position presents an oval or more or less circular form; in the apostrophe position a flattened and lenticular form.” — 1905 September 8, Harold Wager, “On Some Problems of Cell Structure and Physiology”, in English Mechanics and the World of Science, volume 82, number 2111, page 105:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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