Asyndeton
A rhetorical figure that removes conjunctions between clauses for speed and force.
Asyndeton is the deliberate omission of conjunctions — chiefly 'and' — between parallel words, phrases, or clauses. The effect is speed. A sentence without its usual connectives moves like a runner without hurdles, and the reader is asked to draw the links between items themselves, which is part of the power.
Caesar's 'Veni, vidi, vici' — 'I came, I saw, I conquered' — is the paradigm case. The missing conjunctions are what make the line feel less like a report and more like a verdict. Lincoln's closing 'of the people, by the people, for the people' uses asyndeton for the same compression, and modern advertising lives on it: 'Fast. Clean. Cheap.'
Asyndeton is best used at moments of climax or urgency, where the omission of 'and' would sound cheap in ordinary prose but reads, in the right context, as gathered authority. Its opposite is polysyndeton, which piles conjunctions in for a very different effect.
“Veni, vidi, vici.”
Keep reading the glossary
A rhetorical figure that repeats conjunctions for rhythmic accumulation and biblical weight.
A rhetorical structure of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words — the most persuasive number in English.
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.
A short, sharp statement that compresses a truth or observation into a single line.