epanalepsis

[ep-uh-nuh-lep-sis]

noun Rhetoric.

a repetition of a word or a phrase with intervening words setting off the repetition, sometimes occurring with a phrase used both at the beginning and end of a sentence, as in Only the poor really know what it is to suffer; only the poor.

Origin of epanalepsis

1575–85; < Greek epanálēpsis literally, resumption, taking up again, equivalent to ep- ep- + ana- ana- + lêpsis taking hold (lēp-, variant stem of lambánein to take + -sis -sis)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for epanalepsis

epanalepsis

noun

rhetoric the repetition, after a more or less lengthy passage of subordinate or parenthetic text, of a word or clause that was used before

Derived Formsepanaleptic, adjective

Word Origin for epanalepsis

C16: from Greek, from epi- + ana- + lēpis taking, from lambanein to take up

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