Chiasmus

Chiasmus is a figure of speech based on inverted parallelism. It is a rhetorical figure in which two clauses are related to each another through a reversal of terms in order to make a larger point. In Latin in particular, it was used to articulate balance or order within the text in which it was included.

Related Topics:
Figure of speech - Parallelism - Rhetorical figure - Clause - Latin

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Today, chiasmus is applied fairly broadly to any "criss-cross" structure, although in classical rhetoric, it would have been distinguished from other similar devices, especially antimetabole. In its classical application, chiasmus would have been used for structures that do not repeat the same words and phrases.

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