Polyptoton: Definition, Examples, and Related Terms

When it comes to rhythm and sound, repetition is often your best friend. But repetition can also be your worst enemy, making your writing sound monotonous and tiresome.

Writers have devised many ways to enhance their writing with techniques that take advantage of repetition without making it sound boring. One of these is called polyptoton.

What Is Polyptoton?

Polyptoton is a stylistic device where words with the same root are used repeatedly. It comes from the Greek phrase polyptōton which means “many cases.” It is also known as paregmenon.

For instance, take a look at this sentence:

 "Creating what people think can't be created is the summit of creation." 

The words “creating, “created”, and “creation” all derive from the same root word: create. While the root is present in three instances, enough changes are made to prevent the sentence from being wearisome.

Purpose of Polyptoton

Polyptoton is used to emphasize a word or the idea behind it. The repetition strengthens each use of the word, provoking the reader into thinking about its significance.

Sometimes it’s also used to provide contrast and complexity. The subtle changes of each variation of the root highlight the differences between each cognate. For example, attaching affixes to a root easily changes the function of the word and what you mean.

It also makes certain clauses and sentences easier to remember. This is most advantageous in religious texts, where lessons are often contained in succinct one-liners. For example, the gospel of Matthew says: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Polyptoton in Literature

Because polyptoton is also a type of wordplay, writers love including it in their works, especially in poetry. Here are a few examples from famous works:

1. Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.

Here, Shakespeare uses versions of the words “alter” and “remove.” Aside from keeping to the sonnet’s iambic pentameter, the polyptoton also adds to the quatrain’s overall rhythm. Both also drive home the idea that false love is about forcibly changing a person to meet certain qualities.

2. The Dry Salvages by T.S. Eliot 

There is no end of it, the voiceless wailing,
No end to the withering of withered flowers,

To the movement of pain that is painless and motionless,

To the drift of the sea and the drifting wreckage,

The bone’s prayer to Death its God. Only the hardly, barely prayable

Prayer of the one Annunciation.

T.S. Eliot’s use of polyptoton strengthens the imagery contained in the poem. The imagery further enhances the poem’s overall exploration of the nature of time and humanity’s place in it.

3. Maud by Lord Tennyson

Dear heart, I feel with thee the drowsy spell.
My bride to be, my evermore delight,
My own heart’s heart, my ownest own, farewell;

Lord Tennyson cleverly uses the sameness of the words as a visual and auditory clue of the connection between him and his beloved.

4. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

What I’ve dared, I’ve willed; and what I’ve willed, I’ll do! They think me mad – Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and – Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer.

The use of polyptoton here is not only used to intensify the imagery but also to demonstrate Ahab’s sanity. He recognizes his madness but is able to think about sane ways to achieve the object of his insanity.

5. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

“The signora at every grimace and at every bow smiled a little smile and bowed a little bow…”

Here, polyptoton is used to emphasize the actions of the character. The words bow and smile are used as a verb and as a noun.

Polyptoton in Popular Culture

Pop culture also has many instances of polyptoton. Here are some examples:

6. “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables

I dreamed a dream in time gone by,
When hope was high and life, worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
Then I was young and unafraid,
And dreams were made and used and wasted.
There was no ransom to be paid,
No song unsung, no wine, untasted.

In the musical and movie versions of Victor Hugo’s novel, Fantine sings this song after being fired from her job and thrown into the streets. The repetition happens frequently, driving home the hopelessness that Fantine felt in the scene.

7. “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” from How the Grinch Stole Christmas

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch
You're a nasty-wasty skunk
Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote
"Stink, stank, stunk!"

The whole song is a perfect description of who and what the Grinch is. The polyptoton simply serves to emphasize the song’s point.

8. Fight Club

"The things you own end up owning you."

Tyler Durden says this to the narrator after a conversation about consumerism and materialism. The irony of the statement is enforced by how he is obviously dressed in designer clothes.

Related Terms

Polyptoton is sometimes confused with two other similar methods of repetition: antanaclasis and homeoteleuton.

Antanaclasis is the figure of speech where a word or phrase is used repeatedly in a sentence but the meaning changes with every appearance. It’s a type of pun and is usually seen in slogans.

For instance, “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically correct sentence that uses three meanings of the word buffalo—as a verb, an animal, and a place. The sentence can be understood as: The buffalo from Buffalo who are buffaloed by other buffalo from Buffalo also buffalo other buffalo from Buffalo.

Homeoteleuton, on the other hand, is the repetition of words with similar endings. It is also known as near rhyme. Alternate spellings include homoioteleuton and homoeoteleuton.

For example, in Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, a character named Launce utters the sentence “My mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands…”

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