anaphora Definition
the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.
Using anaphora: Examples
Take a moment to familiarize yourself with how "anaphora" can be used in various situations through the following examples!
Example
In literature, anaphora is often used to create emphasis and rhythm, as in Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech: 'I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'
Example
Anaphora is also used in poetry, such as T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land': 'What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow / Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, / You cannot say, or guess, for you know only / A heap of broken images, where the sun beats / And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief.'
Example
Anaphora can be found in everyday speech as well, such as in political slogans like 'Yes we can' and advertising taglines like 'Just do it.'
anaphora Synonyms and Antonyms
Synonyms for anaphora
Phrases with anaphora
Example
In the sentence 'John went to the store. He bought some milk,' 'he' is an example of anaphoric reference.
a figure of speech in which a word is repeated in two different senses
Example
In Shakespeare's 'Richard II': 'Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster, / Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, / Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son, / Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, / Which then our leisure would not let us hear, / Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?' The word 'hear' is used first in the sense of listening, and then in the sense of judging.
the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences
Example
In Winston Churchill's 'We Shall Fight on the Beaches' speech: 'We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.'
Origins of anaphora
from Greek 'anaphorā', meaning 'carrying back'
Summary: anaphora in Brief
An 'anaphora' [əˈnæfərə] is a rhetorical device that involves the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. It is commonly used in literature and poetry to create emphasis and rhythm, as well as in everyday speech and advertising. Anaphora can also be used for anaphoric reference, antanaclasis, and epiphora.
