Anadiplosis
A figure of speech that repeats the last word of one clause at the start of the next, chaining thought forward.
Anadiplosis is a rhetorical figure in which the last word — or a key word — of one clause is repeated at the beginning of the next, so that each idea seems to grow directly out of the one before. The Greek root means 'doubling back', and the effect is of an argument climbing hand-over-hand up its own rope.
Because the figure builds momentum, it is a favourite of preachers, campaigners, and screenwriters. Yoda's 'Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering' is a schoolbook example; Paul's letter to the Romans (5:3–5) uses the figure to move from suffering to hope. When the figure is extended into a long chain — often called climax or gradatio — it becomes one of the most muscular tools in rhetoric.
The risk is that anadiplosis can make dubious reasoning sound inevitable. Because each new clause borrows the last word of the previous one, weak links in the argument are camouflaged by the ear. Use it to strengthen a genuine chain of cause and effect, never to sneak one past the reader.
“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Keep reading the glossary
An ABBA word-order reversal — 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'.
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.
A figure of speech that repeats the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.