syllepsis

American

[si-lep-sis] / sɪˈlɛp sɪs /

noun

Grammar.

the use of a word or expression to perform two syntactic functions, especially to modify two or more words of which at least one does not agree in number, case, or gender, as the use of are in Neither he nor we are willing.

syllepsis British

/ sɪˈlɛpsɪs /

noun

(in grammar or rhetoric) the use of a single sentence construction in which a verb, adjective, etc is made to cover two syntactical functions, as the verb form have in she and they have promised to come
another word for zeugma

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

syllepses

plural

Etymology

Origin of syllepsis

1570–80; < Medieval Latin syllēpsis < Greek sýllēpsis, equivalent to syl- syl- + lēb- (variant stem of lambánein to take) + -sis -sis

Vocabulary lists containing syllepsis

Rhetoric

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023