Antanaclasis

Antanaclasis (Greek ἀντανάκλασις, 'reflection back') is the figure in which a word is repeated in a single passage, but with a different sense in each instance. Benjamin Franklin's 'We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately' is the textbook example: the first 'hang' means to remain united, the second means to be executed.

The device is a form of pun stretched across a full sentence rather than compressed into a single word. It rewards the alert reader with a moment of double vision — the same syllable seen twice, once in each meaning — and it rewards the speaker with a rhythmic pivot that can carry an entire argument.

Antanaclasis is close cousin to polyptoton (repeating a word in a different grammatical form) and to diacope (repeating a word for emphasis with words in between). What is distinctive about antanaclasis is the shift in sense: the word is the same, its meaning is not.

Common mistake: relying on a play on words that only works in one meaning. If either sense of the repeated word is forced, the figure collapses into a pun in search of a joke. The test: does each instance work on its own before the reader notices the doubling? If yes, the antanaclasis has landed.