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anaphora

[ uh-naf-er-uh ]
/ əˈnæf ər ə /
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noun
Also called epanaphora. Rhetoric. repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences.Compare epistrophe (def. 1), symploce.
Grammar. the use of a word as a regular grammatical substitute for a preceding word or group of words, as the use of it and do in I know it and he does too.Compare cataphora.
Sometimes Anaphora .Eastern Church.
  1. the prayer of oblation and consecration in the Divine Liturgy during which the Eucharistic elements are offered.
  2. the part of the ceremony during which the Eucharistic elements are offered as an oblation.
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Origin of anaphora

First recorded in 1580–90; from Late Latin, from Greek: “a bringing back, repeating,” equivalent to ana- ana- + -phora, akin to phérein “to carry, bring”; cf. -phore, -phorous

OTHER WORDS FROM anaphora

a·naph·o·ral, adjectivepre·a·naph·o·ral, adjective

Words nearby anaphora

Ananke, ananthous, anapaest, anapest, anaphase, anaphora, anaphoresis, anaphoric, anaphrodisia, anaphrodisiac, anaphylactic shock
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to anaphora

adumbration, allegory, alliteration, allusion, analogue, analogy, anticlimax, antistrophe, antithesis, aposiopesis, apostrophe, asyndeton, bathos, comparison, conceit, device, echoism, ellipsis, euphemism, euphuism

British Dictionary definitions for anaphora

anaphora
/ (əˈnæfərə) /
noun
grammar the use of a word such as a pronoun that has the same reference as a word previously used in the same discourse. In the sentence John wrote the essay in the library but Peter did it at home, both did and it are examples of anaphoraCompare cataphora, exophoric
rhetoric the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Word Origin for anaphora

C16: via Latin from Greek: repetition, from anapherein, from ana- + pherein to bear
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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