Meanings
plural epizeuxes
- countablerhetoricuncountableThe repetition of words in immediate succession for emphasis.
An Epizeuxis twice a word repeats, And graces thus the theme on which it treats.
1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Turns.] Epizeuxis.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 782 more examples
Wikipedia weds this ranging interest to the kind of pertinence where Larry David's “Pretty, pretty good!” is given as an example of rhetorical epizeuxis.
2020 February 17, Richard Cooke, “Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet”, in Wired'O horror, horror, horror', Macduff cries, his epizeuxis reflecting a lack in the symbolic order itself.
2022, Clive Bloom, The Palgrave Handbook of Gothic Origins, page 39
Origin
- Ancient Greekἐπι-
- Englishepizeuxis
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐπι- (epi-) + ζευγνύναι (zeugnúnai, “to yoke”)
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἐπίζευξις
- ἐπίζευξις (epízeuxis)repeating words in immediate succession
Czech epizeuxis
- epizeuxisrepeating words in immediate succession
German Epizeuxis
- Epizeuxisrepeating words in immediate succession
Icelandic síklifun
- síklifunrepeating words in immediate succession
Latin epizeuxis
- epizeuxisrepeating words in immediate succession
Vietnamese điệp từ
- điệp từrepeating words in immediate succession
Cite this entry
epizeuxis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/epizeuxis
“epizeuxis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/epizeuxis. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “epizeuxis,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/epizeuxis.
Source: epizeuxis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.