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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A construction in which a word governs two or more other words but agrees in number, gender, or case with only one, or has a different meaning when applied to each of the words, as in He lost his coat and his temper.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In rhetoric and grammar: A figure by which a word is used in the same passage both of the person to whom or the thing to which it properly applies, and also to include other persons or things to which it does not apply properly or strictly. This figure includes zeugma and also the taking of words in two senses at once, the literal and the metaphorical, as in the following passage, where the word sweeter is used in both senses: “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether; … sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb.” (Ps. xix. 9, 10.) Also sometimes used as equivalent to synesis.
  2. n. A figure by which one word is referred to another in the sentence to which it does not grammatically belong, as the agreement of a verb or an adjective with one rather than another of two nouns with either of which it might agree: as, rex et regina beati.

Wiktionary

  1. n. rhetoric A figure of speech in which one word simultaneously modifies two or more other words such that the modification must be understood differently with respect to each modified word; often causing humorous incongruity
  2. n. botany Growth in which lateral branches develop from a lateral meristem, without the formation of a bud or period of dormancy, when the lateral meristem is split from a terminal meristem.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Rhet.) A figure of speech by which a word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense at the same time.
  2. n. (Gram.) The agreement of a verb or adjective with one, rather than another, of two nouns, with either of which it might agree in gender, number, etc.; as, rex et regina beati.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. use of a word to govern two or more words though agreeing in number or case etc. with only one

Etymologies

  1. From Latin syllepsis, from Ancient Greek σύλληψις (Wiktionary)
  2. Late Latin syllēpsis, from Greek sullēpsis : sun-, syn- + lēpsis, a taking (from lambanein, to take). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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antonyms (1)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. prolepsis

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. zeugma

reverse dictionary (4)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. sylleptic
  1. sylleptically
  1. zeugma
  1. substitution

tags (7)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. figure of speech
  1. cvccvccvc
  1. ps
  1. spelling bee winner
  1. spellingbeewinner_1958
  1. spellingbeewinner
  1. rhetoric

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  • jmjarmstrong JM agrees that we must all use syllepsis together or assuredly we will all use syllepsis separately. Mar 23, 2011

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‘syllepsis’ has been looked up 3738 times, loved by 8 people, added to 50 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 14.