syllepsis

1 9.9

A word used with two parts of a sentence in different ways to create a clever effect

noun
/sɪˈlɛp.sɪs/

Literature

: silepsis

Using the word "broke" in "He broke the silence and the record" serves as a syllepsis, governing two different meanings of the word.

Examples

This complex syllepsis suggests that "crossing" indicates an act of great importance that involves relation to the sacred.

Academic text (1997)
Metaleptically, syllepsis indirectly tropes the absent speaker into an electric circuit whose energy has merged with the earth's, a circuit empty of its own energy.

Academic text (1997)
"Crossing," first of all, is an instance of syllepsis, a figure in which one word is a pun for two different senses.

Academic text (1997)
In the sentence, "He lost his keys and his temper," the phrase illustrates a syllepsis where one verb governs two nouns with different meanings.
The phrase "She opened her door and her heart" is an example of syllepsis, as the verb connects two actions that differ in context.

Surface Forms

syllepsis singular

syllepses plural

Etymology

Syllepsis comes from Greek words that mean 'taking together': syn- 'together' and lambanein 'to take'. So a syllepsis is when one word 'takes' or governs two things at once, as in 'She broke his car and his heart', and that explains the word's modern meaning.