Repetition is a major rhetorical strategy for producing emphasis, clarity, amplification, or emotional effect. Within the history of rhetoric terms have been developed to name both general and very specific sorts of repetition.

• General terms for Repetition
• Repetition of letters, syllables, sounds
• Repetition of words
• Repetition of clauses and phrases
• Repetition of ideas

• conduplicatio
• ploce

• alliteration
  Repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more stressed syllables.
• assonance
  Repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.
• consonance
  The repetition of consonants in words stressed in the same place (but whose vowels differ). Also, a kind of inverted alliteration, in which final consonants, rather than initial or medial ones, repeat in nearby words.
• homoioptoton
  The repetition of similar case endings in adjacent words or in words in parallel position.
• homoioteleuton
  Similarity of endings of adjacent or parallel words.
• paroemion
  Alliteration taken to an extreme — every word in a sentence begins with the same consonant.
• paromoiosis
  Parallelism of sound between the words of adjacent clauses whose lengths are equal or approximate to one another. The combination of isocolon and assonance.

• adnominatio (When synonymous with polyptoton)
  Repeating a word, but in a different form. Using a cognate of a given word in close proximity.
• anadiplosis
  The repetition of the last word of one clause or sentence at the beginning of the next.
• anaphora
  Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.
• antanaclasis
  The repetition of a word whose meaning changes in the second instance.
• antistasis
  The repetition of a word in a contrary sense. Often, simply synonymous with antanaclasis.
• conduplicatio
  The repetition of a word or words in adjacent phrases or clauses, either to amplify the thought or to express emotion.
• diacope
  Repetition of a word with one or more between, usually to express deep feeling.
• diaphora
  Repetition of a common name so as to perform two logical functions: to designate an individual and to signify the qualities connoted by that individual's name or title.
• epanalepsis
  Repetition at the end of a line, phrase, or clause of the word or words that occurred at the beginning of the same line, phrase, or clause.
• epistrophe
  Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words. The opposite of anaphora.
• epizeuxis
  Repetition of words with no others between.
• mesarchia
  The repetition of the same word or words at the beginning and middleof successive sentences.
• mesodiplosis
  Repetition of the same word or words in the middle of successive sentences.
• palilogia
  Repetition of the same word, with none between, for vehemence. Synonym for epizeuxis.
• paregmenon
  A general term for the repetition of a word or its cognates in a short sentence.
• ploce
  A general term for the repetition of a word for rhetorical emphasis.
• polyptoton
  Repeating a word, but in a different form. Using a cognate of a given word in close proximity.
• polysyndeton
  Employing many conjunctions between clauses.
• symploce
  The combination of anaphora and epistrophe: beginning a series of lines, clauses, or sentences with the same word or phrase while simultaneously repeating a different word or phrase at the end of each element in this series.

• anaphora
  Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.
• coenotes
  Repetition of two different phrases: one at the beginning and the other at the end of successive paragraphs. A specific kind of symploce.
• epistrophe
  Repetition at the end of a line, phrase, or clause of the word or words that occurred at the beginning of the same line, phrase, or clause.
• isocolon
  A series of similarly structured elements having the same length. The length of each member is repeated in parallel fashion.
• mesarchia
  The repetition of the same word or words at the beginning and middleof successive sentences.
• mesodiplosis
  Repetition of the same word or words in the middle of successive sentences.
• repotia
  The repetition of a phrase with slight differences in style, diction, tone, etc.

• commoratio
  Dwelling on or returning to one's strongest argument.
• disjunctio
  A similar idea is expressed with different verbs in successive clauses.
• epanodos
  Repeating the main terms of an argument in the course of presenting it.
• epimone
  Persistent repetition of the same plea in much the same words.
• exergasia
  Augmentation by repeating the same thought in many figures.
• expolitio
  Repetition of the same idea, changing either its words, its delivery, or the general treatment it is given.
• homiologia
  Tedious and inane repetition. Unvaried style.
• hypozeuxis
  
• palilogia
  Repetition in order to increase general fullness or to communicate passion.
• pleonasmus
  Use of more words than is necessary semantically. Rhetorical repetition that is grammatically superfluous.
• scesis onomaton
  A series of successive, synonymous expressions.
• synonymia
  The use of several synonyms together to amplify or explain a given subject or term. A kind of repetition that adds force.
• tautologia
  The repetition of the same idea in different words, but (often) in a way that is wearisome or unnecessary.
• traductio
  Repeating the same word variously throughout a sentence or thought.
  
  last updated 12/12/2006