Diacope


Diacope is a rhetorical term meaning repetition of a word or phrase that is broken up by a single intervening word, or a small number of intervening words. It derives from a Greek word diakopḗ, which means "cut in two". Diacopae are used in writing to emphasize or describe something. Like other forms of repetition, diacope helps express strong emotions, or help give weight to the repeated word.

Types of Diacope

Diacope can be utilized in three ways in writing. They are:
  1. Vocative Diacope: In this type of diacope, the repeated words are separated by nouns that are directly addressed. The noun must address something, or someone.
  2. Elaborative Diacope: Here an adjective is used between the repeated words to enhance the meaning of the repeated word.
  3. Extended Diacope: Sometimes a word is repeated thrice for even more emphasis.

Examples

The first line in the poem not to deploy diacope is the one about death being "a pause."