Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In rhetoric, a figure which consists in repeating the same word in a different sense: as, while we live, let us live; learn some craft when young, that when old you may live without craft.
  • noun In grammar, a repetition, after a long parenthesis, of a word or words preceding it: as, shall that heart (which has been thought to be the seat of emotion, and which is the center of the body's life), shall that heart, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A figure which consists in repeating the same word in a different sense; as, Learn some craft when young, that when old you may live without craft.
  • noun A repetition of words beginning a sentence, after a long parenthesis; as, Shall that heart (which not only feels them, but which has all motions of life placed in them), shall that heart, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun rhetoric The repeated use of the same word or phrase, but with a different meaning each time; a kind of pun.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀντανάκλασις (antanaklasis, "reflection, bending back"), ἀντί (anti, "against") + ἀνά (ana, "up") + κλάσις (klasis, "breaking").

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Examples

  • Related figures, or "topics of invention," such as antanaclasis

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 3 1984

  • I'm sitting here trying to decide whether a particular specimen of paronomasia is to be considered polyptoton or antanaclasis.

    I love the classical roots of education, but... Prof. de Breeze 2008

  • I'm sitting here trying to decide whether a particular specimen of paronomasia is to be considered polyptoton or antanaclasis.

    Archive 2008-02-01 Prof. de Breeze 2008

  • "Passes," in this description, functions almost as antanaclasis; physical movement and the movement of thought are doubly equivocal.

    _Alastor_, Apostasy, and the Ecology of Criticism 1999

  • Of the remaining long list of figures, the Irish are particularly disposed to the epizeuxis, as 'indeed, indeed -- at all, at all,' and antanaclasis, or double meaning.

    Tales and Novels — Volume 04 Maria Edgeworth 1808

  • Fully updated to include terms that have become prominent in literature in the last few years, from cyberpunk to antanaclasis, the Second Edition is ingeniously designed to tackle the less obvious terms that students and general readers will encounter.

    AvaxHome RSS: 2009

Comments

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  • A kind of pun, in which a word is repeated but with a shift in meaning:

    "To England will I steal, and there I'll steal." – Shak., Henry V, 5.1.92.

    December 7, 2007

  • "Let's just say it moved me...TO A BIGGER HOUSE"

    May 11, 2009

  • JM always enjoys a good antanaclasis when it's for good!

    December 17, 2010