Meanings
plural epiplexes
- rhetoricA rhetorical device where a sequence of rhetorical questions is used to criticise or blame, or more generally, to elicit an emotional response.
Afterwards, questioners employ the rhetorical figure called epiplexis. This interrogative figure is designed to blame the addressee, posing trick questions whose goal is to reveal whatever the speaker considers to be his or her faults. Epiplexis is backed up by cataplexis.
2013, Jean Godefroy Bidima, “La Palabre: The Legal Authority of Speech”, in Law and the Public Sphere in Africa: La Palabre and Other Writings, page 241 more example
Remember also to structure epiplexes with one of the patterns for figures with multiple elements we met in chapter three. Repeated rhetorical questions can move from general to specific, from short to long, from broad to narrow, but should always unpack like Russian dolls.
2018, Danyal Freeman, Seductive Academic Writing, page 83
Origin
- Ancient Greekἐπίπληξις“rebuke”
- Latinepiplexis“rebuke”
- Englishepiplexis
From Latin epiplexis (“rebuke”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίπληξις (epíplēxis, “rebuke”), from ἐπιπλήσσω (epiplḗssō, “to chastise”), from ἐπι- (epi-, “upon”) (see epi-) + πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
epiplexis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/epiplexis
“epiplexis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/epiplexis. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “epiplexis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/epiplexis.
Source: epiplexis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.