polysyndeton

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word polysyndeton. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word polysyndeton, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say polysyndeton in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word polysyndeton you have here. The definition of the word polysyndeton will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofpolysyndeton, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Polysyndeton

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin polysyndeton, itself from Byzantine Greek πολυσύνδετον (polusúndeton, literally many connected).

Pronunciation

Noun

Examples (rhetoric)

Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats

polysyndeton (countable and uncountable, plural polysyndetons or polysyndeta)

  1. (rhetoric) The use of many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence.
    • Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, , Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 53:
      In Polysyndeton conjunctions flow,
      And every word its copulative will shew.
      ]
    • 2002, Robert Baird Shuman, editor, Great American Writers: Twentieth Century, Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 668:
      [Hemingway] often employs a variety of polysyndeton—a frequent use of conjunctions, most notably “and”—linking elements in a sentence together in a way that implies all parts are of equal importance, while in fact one unit of the series may be much more significant than the others.

Antonyms

Translations