Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In rhetoric, the repetition of one word at the beginning and another at the end of successive clauses, as in the sentence “Mercy descended from heaven to dwell on the earth; Mercy fled back to heaven and left the earth.

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

  • noun (Rhet.) The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and another at the end of successive clauses; as, Justice came down from heaven to view the earth; Justice returned to heaven, and left the earth.

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

  • noun rhetoric The repetition of one word or words at the beginning and another word or words at the end of successive phrases or clauses.
  • noun rhetoric A combination of epanaphora and antistrophe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and another at the end of successive clauses, i.e., simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek συμπλοκή (symploke, "interweaving")

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