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30+ Repetition Examples: 13 Types + How to Use It Effectively

• Updated: 03/04/24
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Repetition is a powerful literary tool and a fundamental element of good writing in a multitude of contexts.

It can be harnessed to emphasize a point, evoke an emotion, create rhythm, and even to underline themes in a piece of work.

This article will delve into the repetition definition, various types of repetition, and some common examples to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of what it is and how it can be effectively employed in your writing.

Whether you’re a seasoned writer or a novice looking to finesse your technique, this guide is designed to equip you with valuable insights to elevate your written work!

What is Repetition in Writing?

Repetition is the repeating of words, phrases, or ideas within a piece of writing.

It can be used in various forms such as repetition of single words, phrases, entire sentences, or even structures.

It is a literary technique that has been utilized by writers for centuries to emphasize and reinforce key points, evoke emotions, and create a memorable impact on readers.

Moreover, repetition is not limited to literature or creative writing, it is also frequently employed in advertising and public speaking to make a message stick with the audience.

Now that we have an understanding of what repetition is, let’s dive into some examples of how it can be effectively used in writing.

13 Types of Repetition With Examples

Repetition is a very versatile literary device and can be used in many different ways.

Here are 10 types of repetition, accompanied by examples of each:

1. Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases.

One of the most famous anaphora examples comes from Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” – Martin Luther King

Another example:

“ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…” – Charles Dickets, A Tale of Two Cities

2. Epistrophe

Epistrophe is similar to anaphora, but instead of repeating words or phrases at the beginning of clauses or sentences, it is repeated at the end.

An example can be found in this 2008 presidential victory speech:

“Because if we are willing to work for it and fight for it and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children…” – Barack Obama

3. Symploce

Symploce is the combination of anaphora and epistrophe, where a word or phrase is repeated at both the beginning and end of successive clauses or sentences.

A great example of repetition with symploce can be seen in ‘I Sing the Body Electric:’

“And if the body  does not do fully as much as  the soul ? And if the body  were not the soul, what is  the soul ?” – Walt Whitman

4. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a series of words. It is commonly used in poetry and creates a musical effect.

Some common alliteration examples include:

• From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “So we b eat on, b oats against the current, b orne b ack ceaselessly into the past.”
• From Shakespeare’s Beowulf: “To f east his f ill of the f lesh of men.”

5. Assonance

Similar to alliteration, assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words.

It creates a musical quality to your tone of writing and can evoke certain emotions in readers.

A simple repetition example of assonance can be heard in the words “cr y ing t i me” , where there is a repetition of the long “i” sound between each of the words.

6. Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words, rather than just at the beginning.

It adds a sense of rhythm and musicality to writing.

For example,  “ L aura ca ll ed to te ll  me that  L i l a had fa ll en i ll .”

The consonant sound “L” is repeated throughout this phrase.

6. Anadiplosis

Anadiplosis is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of one clause or sentence and then at the beginning of the next.

It creates a strong connection between ideas. For example:

“Fear leads to anger , anger leads to hate , hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda in Star Wars

7. Epanalepsis

Epanalepsis is the repetition of the same word or phrase at both the beginning and end of a clause or sentence.

It is used to create emphasis and make a point clear.

A famous example of repetition in literature in the form of epanalepsis is:

“ Blood hath brought blood , and blows answer to blows .” – William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Diacope is a type of repetition that occurs when the same word or phrase is repeated with other words in between.

It comes from the Greek word “diakopon” which means to cut through.

Some examples include:

• “To be , or not to be ” – William Shakespeare in Hamlet
• “ Bond . James Bond .” – James Bond movies
• “He’s so good at playing the guitar. It’s like he was born with a guitar in his hands.”

8. Polyptoton

Polyptoton is the repetition of words with different forms or tenses within a sentence.

It can add complexity and depth to writing. For example:

“I dreamed a dream.” – Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

9. Antistasis

Antistasis is the repetition of a word in a different sense or meaning within the same sentence.

It can create interesting wordplay and add depth to writing.

“ Nothing will come of nothing .” – Shakespeare, Hamlet

10. Antanaclasis

Antanaclasis is the repetition of a word or phrase in two different meanings. It can create clever wordplay and add depth to writing.

“Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.” Groucho Marx

In this example, the word flies has a different meaning in the context of time and the type of insects that love bananas.

“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.” -Vince Lombardi

11. Epimone

Epimone is a repeated phrase or question to emphasize an important point.

It can also be used as a rhetorical device to engage and persuade readers.

One example of repetition in the form of epimone can be seen below:

“All his brains are in the nape of his neck , Simon Dedalus says. Welts of flesh behind on him. Fat folds of neck , fat , neck , fat , neck .” – James Joyce, Ulysses

12. Epizeuxis

Epizeuxis is the repetition of the same words or phrases for emphasis and intensity.

It adds emotional weight to writing and can create a sense of urgency.

• “ Never , never , never give up.” – Winston Churchill
• “Oh Romeo , Romeo , wherefore art thou Romeo ?” – William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.

13. Negative-Positive Restatement

Negative-positive restatement is the repetition of an idea in both a negative and positive form or with opposite meanings.

It can highlight contrasts and add depth to writing.

An example can be found in this famous speech:

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools .” – Martin Luther King

The concept is not repeated, but rather the idea is restated in a negative and positive form.

30 Repetition Examples

Now that you have an idea of different types of repetition, here are some other common examples in various contexts.

Repetition Examples in Literature

• “Because I do not hope to turn again. Because I do not hope . Because I do not hope to turn…” – T.S. Eliot in Ash Wednesday
• “I felt happy because I saw the others were happy and because I knew I should feel happy .” – David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest
• “I am Sam. Sam I am.” – Dr. Seuss in Green Eggs and Ham
• “And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole , filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit- hole , and that means comfort.” – The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Repetition Examples in Speeches and Politics

• “I have a dream.” – Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech
• “ Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech
• “We will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing grounds, we will fight in the fields and in the streets…” – Winston Churchill’s speech
• “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inaugural address
• “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America .” – Bill Clinton’s inaugural address

Repetition Examples in TV and Film

• “ Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. ” – The Godfather Part II
• “ With great power, comes great responsibility. ” – Spider-Man
• “I want the truth ! You can’t handle the truth !” – A Few Good Men (1992)
• “Are you talkin’ to me? Are you talkin’ to me?” – Taxi Driver
• “ Wax on. Wax off.” – The Karate Kid

Repetition Examples in Music

• “I want to break free. I want to break free.” – I Want to Break Free by Queen
• “I will follow you, Follow you wherever you may go” – I Will Follow You by Elvis Presley
• “Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be . Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.” – Let It Be by The Beatles
• “ I will always love you . I will always love you.” – I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston
• “The love you get is equal to the love you make.” – The End by The Beatles

How to Use Repetition Effectively in Writing

Here are some tips to use repetition effectively in your writing:

• Choose the right type of repetition: Consider the purpose and tone of your writing to decide which form of repetition will be most effective. For example, if you want to add emphasis or intensity, epizeuxis might be a good choice. If you want to create an emotional connection, using positive-negative restatement can be effective.
• Use repetition for emphasis: Repetition is a powerful tool to emphasize important ideas or create a sense of urgency in your writing. Use it sparingly and strategically for best effect.
• Create rhythm: Repetition can also add rhythm and flow to your writing, making it more engaging and memorable for readers.
• Avoid overusing repetition: Too much repetition can be monotonous and boring for readers. Make sure to use it sparingly and vary your language to keep readers engaged.
• Consider the context: Repetition may not always be appropriate in certain contexts, such as academic or formal writing. Consider the purpose of your writing and audience before using repetition.
• Edit with intention: After writing, review your work and check if the repetition adds value or if it can be replaced with other techniques to improve the overall impact of your writing.

So next time you’re writing something, remember the power of repetition and use it effectively to engage and persuade your readers.

FAQs About Repetition

Repetition in literature refers to the recurrent use of words, phrases, or structures for emphasis or to make a point. One classic example is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” where the word “nevermore” is repeated at the end of several stanzas, creating a haunting effect and emphasizing the speaker’s despair.

A good sentence showcasing repetition could be, “She runs fast, she runs efficiently, she runs like the wind.” In this sentence, the repetition of the phrase “she runs” creates emphasis on the speed and skill with which she runs. This repetition not only stresses the point but also adds rhythm to the sentence.

One famous example of repetition is Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic speech, “I Have a Dream,” which repeats the phrase “I have a dream” multiple times for emphasis and to inspire hope in his audience. This repetition also adds rhythm and power to the speech, making it memorable and impactful.

Repetition is a common technique used in music to create rhythm, emphasize lyrics, or enhance the overall effect of a song. One popular example is the chorus of Beyonce’s hit song “Single Ladies,” where the phrase “if you like it then you should’ve put a ring on it” is repeated multiple times throughout the song. This repetition not only makes the chorus catchy and easy to remember, but it also reinforces the message of the song.

Key Takeaways for Writing Repetition

In conclusion, the use of repetition can greatly amplify the impact of your writing, whether it’s for a poem, a speech, or a song lyric.

When used judiciously, repetition can emphasize key points, evoke emotional responses, and create rhythm.

Famous writers, politicians, and musicians have employed this technique to bring their words to life and leave a lasting impression on their audience.

However, to avoid monotony, it is critical to use this tool sparingly and strategically.

Consider your purpose, audience, and overall context while applying repetition in your writing.

With the right balance, this literary device can turn your piece from ordinary to memorable!

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How to Avoid Repetition and Redundancy in Academic Writing

Published on March 15, 2019 by Kristin Wieben . Revised on July 23, 2023.

Repetition and redundancy can cause problems at the level of either the entire paper or individual sentences. However, repetition is not always a problem as, when used properly, it can help your reader follow along. This article shows how to streamline your writing.

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Avoiding repetition at the paper level, avoiding repetition at the sentence level, when is repetition not a problem, other interesting articles.

On the most basic level, avoid copy-and-pasting entire sentences or paragraphs into multiple sections of the paper. Readers generally don’t enjoy repetition of this type.

Don’t restate points you’ve already made

It’s important to strike an appropriate balance between restating main ideas to help readers follow along and avoiding unnecessary repetition that might distract or bore readers.

For example, if you’ve already covered your methods in a dedicated methodology chapter , you likely won’t need to summarize them a second time in the results chapter .

If you’re concerned about readers needing additional reminders, you can add short asides pointing readers to the relevant section of the paper (e.g. “For more details, see Chapter 4”).

Don’t use the same heading more than once

It’s important for each section to have its own heading so that readers skimming the text can easily identify what information it contains. If you have two conclusion sections, try making the heading more descriptive – for instance, “Conclusion of X.”

Are all sections relevant to the main goal of the paper?

Try to avoid providing redundant information. Every section, example and argument should serve the main goal of your paper and should relate to your thesis statement or research question .

If the link between a particular piece of information and your broader purpose is unclear, then you should more explicitly draw the connection or otherwise remove that information from your paper.

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Keep an eye out for lengthy introductory clauses that restate the main point of the previous sentence. This sort of sentence structure can bury the new point you’re trying to make. Try to keep introductory clauses relatively short so that readers are still focused by the time they encounter the main point of the sentence.

In addition to paying attention to these introductory clauses, you might want to read your paper aloud to catch excessive repetition. Below we listed some tips for avoiding the most common forms of repetition.

• Use a variety of different transition words
• Vary the structure and length of your sentences
• Don’t use the same pronoun to reference more than one antecedent (e.g. “ They asked whether they were ready for them”)
• Avoid repetition of particular sounds or words (e.g. “ Several shelves sheltered similar sets of shells ”)
• Avoid redundancies (e.g “ In the year 2019 ” instead of “ in 2019 ”)
• Don’t state the obvious (e.g. “The conclusion chapter contains the paper’s conclusions”)

It’s important to stress that repetition isn’t always problematic. Repetition can help your readers follow along. However, before adding repetitive elements to your paper, be sure to ask yourself if they are truly necessary.

Restating key points

Repeating key points from time to time can help readers follow along, especially in papers that address highly complex subjects. Here are some good examples of when repetition is not a problem:

Restating the research question in the conclusion This will remind readers of exactly what your paper set out to accomplish and help to demonstrate that you’ve indeed achieved your goal.

Referring to your key variables or themes Rather than use varied language to refer to these key elements of the paper, it’s best to use a standard set of terminology throughout the paper, as this can help your readers follow along.

Underlining main points

When used sparingly, repetitive sentence and paragraph structures can add rhetorical flourish and help to underline your main points. Here are a few famous examples:

“ Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” – John F. Kennedy, inaugural address

“…and that government of the people , by the people , for the people shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

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Repetition in Writing and Rhetoric: 9 Types and Examples

by Yen Cabag | 2 comments

The most effective communication is clear and concise. That’s why our teachers told us to make sure we don’t repeat the same words over and over again, and to think up synonyms instead. 

But when you study a piece of powerful writing or speech, you’ll see that it may not adhere to those principles of brevity the whole time; certain phrases, ideas, and images are repeated throughout. Wasn’t the writer supposed to think of other words to use? 

For the best writers, that repetition is not accidental. The author has reached into their toolbox and used a literary device called repetition to give emphasis to an idea within a larger text. 

Definition of Repetition 

As a literary device , repetition is the process of repeating certain words or phrases in order to make an idea more memorable and clear. Repetition is used in speeches, literature, and poetry, and can be applied to a word, a line, a phrase, or even a full sentence. 

Repetition signals to readers, “Hey, listen, this is important!” In a way, you are calling attention to the importance of the line and giving it emphasis. Still, you don’t always want this to be obvious to readers, as it may diminish the reading experience if not done effectvely.

Types of Repetition 

In hopes of not sounding too repetitive throughout your text, check out these different types of repetition.

Instead of using the same tactic repeatedly (pardon the pun!), remember to mix for the different types throughout your writing.

1. Anadiplosis

Repeating the last word or group of words in a clause or a line helps emphasize the connection between two ideas. It is common in different kinds of literature, such as children’s books, famous speeches, and even the Bible. 

The repetition results in an emphasis that persuades people by creating a sense of urgency, while also giving the text or speech a pleasing rhythm . 

It may also be used to show a logical progression of ideas through three or more clauses. This example from the film Gladiator shows how this works: 

“The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor.”

2. Anaphora

Anaphora is repeating words at the beginning of verses or clauses. This is common in children’s stories in order to build up a child’s anticipation and encourage participation. For example, the classic children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. goes: 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?  I see a red bird looking at me.  Red Bird, Red Bird, what do you see?  I see a yellow duck looking at me.  Yellow Duck, Yellow Duck, what do you see? I see a blue horse looking at me. 

The repetition of the names in the first line help to draw the child’s attention to the animal, while the repetition of the clause “what do you see?” and the beginning words “I see a…” helps cement the practice of saying what he sees. 

Diacope is the repetition of words or phrases with one or more new words in between. The reason for the repetition is simply to draw the reader’s attention to the repeated word. One of the most popular examples of a diacope is the opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: 

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. 

The repetition of the word “unhappy” helps to focus the reader’s attention on this idea. 

Epimone is repeating a phrase, oftentimes a question, in order to emphasize a point. 

For example, in the children’s picture book Caps For Sale , when the peddler realizes he’s lost all his caps while he was taking a nap, the story goes: 

“He looked to the right of him. No caps. He looked to the left of him. No caps. He looked in back of him. No caps. He looked behind the tree. No caps.”

The constant repetition of the phrase “no caps” emphasizes his dismay at having lost all his caps: 

5. Epiphora

Epiphora is repeating the same word or phrase at the end of each line. Look at this example from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice : 

BASSANIO:  Sweet Portia, If you did know to whom  I gave the ring , If you did know for whom  I gave the ring And would conceive for what  I gave the ring And how unwillingly I left  the ring, When naught would be accepted but  the ring, You would abate the strength of your displeasure. PORTIA : If you had known the virtue of  the ring , Or half her worthiness that gave  the ring , Or your own honor to contain  the ring , You would not then have parted with  the ring .

The constant repetition of the word “the ring” at the end of every line helps the reader pay attention to this object throughout the discourse. 

6. Epistrophe

This strategy involves repeating a word at the end of every clause or line. This technique helps writers add not just emphasis but also rhythm to their writing. 

For example, in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he describes this scene: 

When I was  a child , I talked like  a child , I thought like  a child , I reasoned like  a child .

If we were to shorten this line, we could write, “When I was a child, I talked, thought, and reasoned like one.” But notice that it loses the evocative feel of the original text. 

7. Gradatio

This is a poetry construction in which the last word of one line is used as the first word of the next, and so on. 

For example, in this worship song by Kari Jobe, you can find the second phrase in the first line repeated as the beginning of the second line: 

The more I seek You, the more I find You. The more I find You, the more I love You.

8. Mesodiplosis

Mesodiplosis refers to the repetition of a word in the middle of every clause. An example found in the Bible is in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: 

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed .

The repetition of the phrase “but not” helps to emphasize that all the lines are meant to show a contrast. 

9. Negative-Positive Restatement

This repetition technique states an idea two times: first, it expresses the idea in a negative sense, and then repeats it in a positive sense. This is a common strategy in rhetoric, and makes for memorable lines that we love to quote, such as the following examples: 

Martin Luther King, Jr., in Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? , says : “Freedom is not given, it is won.” 

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray , there is this line: “The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” 

And of course, a frequently quoted line from President John Kennedy’s Inaugural Address goes: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country… My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Effects of Repetition in Writing

As you can see, using repetition effectively can make your writing shine. But make sure that the purpose of the repetition is not just to increase your word count in a paper; rather, focus on emphasizing ideas and adding rhythm to your work.

With practice, you will find yourself becoming more comfortable wielding this powerful rhetoric tool. 

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• What Is Rhetoric? Definitions and Examples to Make Your Writing More Effective
• 17 of the Most Common Literary Devices Every Reader and Writer Should Know
• Rhythm in Literature: Definition, Examples, and How to Create Your Own
• How to Write a Poem: 10 Tips to Get You Started

Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.

what about “if i am the chief of sinners, i am also the chief of sufferers”?

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Repetition Definition

What is repetition? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Repetition is a literary device in which a word or phrase is repeated two or more times. Repetition occurs in so many different forms that it is usually not thought of as a single figure of speech . Instead, it's more useful to think of repetition as being a category that covers a number of more specific figures of speech, all of which use repetition in different ways.

Some additional key details about repetition:

• Figures of speech that employ repetition usually repeat single words or short phrases, but some can involve the repetition of sounds while others might involve the repetition of entire sentences.
• Repeating information has been scientifically shown to increase the likelihood of changing people's minds. The persuasive power of repetition is one of the reasons it is so common.

Repetition Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce repetition: rep-ih- tish -un

Figures of Speech that Use Repetition

There are many different figures of speech that use repetition, all in different ways. These figures of speech can vary in the things they repeat (sounds, words, phrases, etc.) as well as in the specific order in which the repeated words appear in clauses or sentences. The most common repetition figures of speech are:

• Alliteration : The repetition of the same sound in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to the basement.” The repeating sound must occur either in the first letter of each word, or in the stressed syllables of those words.
• Anadiplosis : Occurs when a word or group of words located at the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at or near the beginning of the following clause or sentence. This line from the novelist Henry James is an example of anadiplosis: "Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."
• Anaphora : The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. For example, Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech contains anaphora: "So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania..."
• Antanaclasis : A repetition of a word or phrase in which the that word or phrase means something different each time it appears. A famous example of antanaclasis is Benjamin Franklin's statement that: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
• Antimetabole : The repetition of a phrase, but with the order of words reversed. John F. Kennedy's words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," is a famous example of antimetabole.
• Assonance : The repetition of the same vowel sound within a group of words. An example of assonance is the repetition of the "oo" sound in: "Who gave Newt and Scooter the blue tuna? It was too soon!"
• Consonance : The repetition of the same consonant sound within a group of words. An example of consonance is the repetition of the "f" sound in: "Traffic figures to be tough on July Fourth."
• Diacope : The repetition of a word or phrase with a small number of intervening words. The repetition of "unhappy" in the first line of Anna Karenina is an example of diacope, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," is an example of diacope.
• Epanalepsis : Occurs when the beginning of a clause or sentence is repeated at the end of that same clause or sentence, with words intervening. The sentence "The king is dead, long live the king!" is an example of epanalepsis.
• Epistrophe : In epistrophe, one or more words repeat at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln urged the American people to ensure that, "government of the people, by the people, for the people,shall not perish from the earth." His repetition of "the people" at the end of each clause is an example of epistrophe.
• Epizeuxis : The repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, with no words in between. When the character Kurtz in Heart of Darkness says, "The horror, the horror," that's an example of epizeuxis.
• Polysyndeton : Occurs when coordinating conjunctions—words such as "and," "or," and "but" that join other words or clauses in a sentence into relationships of equal importance—are used several times in close succession, particularly where conjunctions would normally not be present at all. For instance, the following sentence contains polysyndeton: "We ate roast beef and squash and biscuits and potatoes and corn and cheese and cherry pie."
• Polyptoton : Occurs when words that share the same root, but are not identical, are repeated. The question, "Who shall watch the watchmen?" is an example of polyptoton.
• Refrain : In a poem or song, a refrain is a line or group of lines that regularly repeat, usually at the end of a stanza in a poem or at the end of a verse in a song. In a speech or other prose writing, a refrain can refer to any phrase that repeats a number of times within the text.

Repetition Examples

Here are additional examples from literature for each of the most common figures of speech that use repetition.

Repetition Example from Literature: Alliteration

This example from lines 5-6 of the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet has two sets of alliteration, one with “f” sounds and one with “l” sounds.

F rom f orth the f atal l oins of these two f oes A pair of star-cross'd l overs take their l ife;

Repetition Example from Literature: Anadiplosis

In Lolita , the morally bankrupt Humbert Humbert defends his relationship to the young Lolita to an imagined jury. Here, he reveals that what he presented as another person's letter was actually written by him, ostensibly from memory.

What I present here is what I remember of the letter , and what I remember of the letter I remember verbatim (including that awful French.)

A tactic of his deceit involves convincing the jury of the improbable—that is, that he remembers a letter verbatim—and his use of anadiplosis as a persuasion tool reflects both his charming and incredibly slimy personality.

Repetition Example from Literature: Anaphora

In this short excerpt from The Great Gatsby , F. Scott Fitzgerald uses anaphora in a description of the apartment that Tom Buchanan keeps as a secret location for his extramarital affair. The anaphora emphasizes the smallness of this gaudy apartment, which also reflects the pettiness of the affair.

The apartment was on the top floor— a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath.

Repetition Example from Literature: Antanaclasis

Shakespeare often used antanaclasis in his plays. For instance, in Act V of Henry V a character named Pistol promises to sneak off to England and there engage in crime:

To England will I steal, and there I'll steal.

Repetition Example from Literature: Antimetabole

The dashing trio's rallying cry in The Three Musketeers is a famous example of antimetabole. The saying has remained in circulation until today—in part because antimetabole makes it so memorable.

All for one and one for all !

Repetition Example from Literature: Assonance

In these lines from Book XII of Lattimore's translation of Homer's Iliad the assonance helps reinforce the lulling effect of the winds' sleep:

"When Zeus ... st i lls the w i nds asleep i n the sol i d dr i ft ..."

Repetition Example from Literature: Consonance

In this line from chapter 9 of Moby-Dick , the " s " and " h " sounds mirror the activity of the scene—singing—by making the prose musical.

Nearly all joined in s inging thi s h ymn, which s welled h igh about the h owling of the s torm ...

Repetition Example from Literature: Diacope

In Othello , just before he kills Desdemona in Act V, Othello utters this line that contains the repetition of diacope:

Put out the light , and then put out the light .

It's worth noting that Othello's line here is also an example of antanaclasis, as he is using "put out the light" to mean two different things.

Repetition Example from Literature: Epanalepsis

In this excerpt from a speech by Ralph Nader, the repetition of "minimum wage" underscores its role as a major concern in both his speech and his political priorities.

A minimum wage that is not a livable wage can never be a minimum wage .

Repetition Example from Literature: Epistrophe

In this example from Chapter 28 of the The Grapes of Wrath , Steinbeck's use of epistrophe in Tom Joad's farewell dialog with his mother emphasizes Joad's desire both to provide her with some reassurance and continue to be there for her:

Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there . Wherever they's a cop beaten' up a guy, I'll be there ...I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'—I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready. An' when our folk eat the stuff they raise n'live in the houses they build—why, I'll be there .

Joad's repetition of his presence wherever poor people need help also emphasizes his dedication to the cause he believes in, and turns him into an almost mythological or godly presence who is always there to protect and support the downtrodden.

Repetition Example from Literature: Epizeuxis

One of the most famous examples of epizeuxis occurs in Hamlet , as Hamlet is speaking to (and mocking) Polonious in Act 2. When Polonius asks Hamlet what he's reading, Hamlet responds:

Words, words, words.

Here Hamlet both mocks what he sees as the stupidity of Polonious's question, but at the same time the repetition communicates a kind of awful weariness, in which Hamlet can't bring himself to care about the meaning of the words.

Repetition Example from Literature: Polysyndeton

Bob Dylan won the nobel prize for literature for the genius of his lyrics. His song "Masters of War" shows how polysyndeton can be used to build a specific emotion:

" And I hope that you die And your death'll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I'll watch while you're lowered Down to your deathbed And I'll stand over your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead"

Anger and disgust are palpable in the final lines of this song of protest against the politicians behind the Vietnam War. By using polysyndeton, Dylan continues to add phrase after phrase, far beyond where listeners might expect him to stop, to fully communicate the depth of his fury and his hatred for the politicians he calls the "masters of war."

Repetition Example from Literature: Polyptoton

In Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida , the character Troilus uses polyptoton three times in two lines. In all three cases, the repetition emphasizes the might of the Greeks:

The Greeks are strong and skillful to their strength , Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant;

Repetition Example from Literature: Refrain

These are the first two stanzas of a song from Shakespeare's play, Twelfth Night . This poem actually contains a "double refrain," because it has two lines that repeat as refrains in each stanza.

When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth every day. But when I came to man’s estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, ’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, For the rain it raineth every day.

Why Do Writers Use Repetition?

Given the large number of figures of speech that use repetition, it stands to reason that writers use repetition for all sorts of different reasons. That said, it's possible to describe some general reasons that writers might choose to use repetition:

• Emphasis: The repetition of a word or phrase naturally serves to highlight it's importance within a text and as a thing or idea.
• Persuasion: Scientific studies have shown that simply repeating something is one of the most effective ways to convince people of its truth. Figures of speech that use repetition are common in speeches for just this reason.
• Contrast: Sometimes by repeating the same thing in slightly different contexts it is possible to illuminate contrasts. For instance, in the sentence, "What you own ends up owning you," the repetition of "own" highlights the contrast or twist in the sentence, which argues that the things you buy to improve your life can end up limiting and influencing your life choices.
• Rhythm: Repetition creates a natural rhythm, like beats of a drum, within a sentence. Repetition, then, is not just valuable for how it can allow a writer to control the meaning of sentences. It also can help a writer to affect the feel of those sentences.

Other Helpful Repetition Resources

• Wikipedia entry on repetition : A pretty basic discussion of repetition as a device.
• Youtube video on repetition : This video covers the basics of repetition.

• Alliteration
• Anadiplosis
• Antanaclasis
• Antimetabole
• Epanalepsis
• Figure of Speech
• Polysyndeton
• Stream of Consciousness
• Bildungsroman
• Dynamic Character
• Verbal Irony
• Flat Character
• Parallelism
• Connotation
• Tragic Hero
• Protagonist
• Figurative Language
• Slant Rhyme

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Tuesday’s Tip: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

This edition of Tuesday’s Tips is brought to us by Dr. Ryan Shirey , the Director of the WFU Writing Center .

One concern that students often have is that they are repeating themselves, either in word or idea, over the course of an essay. While repetition is not an inherently bad thing (and can quite often be used to great effect as in the classical rhetorical technique of anaphora or this old classic by The Fall ), most of us want to make sure that we’re not boring our readers by saying the same things over and over again without any variation or development.

If you are concerned that you might be getting a little too repetitive in your writing, you might try the following steps to identify and revise potentially repetitive portions of your text.

1) If you’re worried about repeating ideas, then one of the easiest and most illuminating things that you can do is to reverse outline your draft. When you reverse outline, you take your draft and distill each idea and piece of evidence back into an outline. Some writers like to do this in the margins and others prefer a separate sheet of paper. Whatever your preference, a reverse outline will let you see rather clearly whether or not you’ve returned to the same idea or piece of evidence multiple times in the same essay. If you find that you have, you can think about rearranging or cutting paragraphs as necessary.

2) Another strategy if you’re worried about repeating ideas is to use different colored highlighters, colored pencils, or coloring tools in a word processing program to mark areas of your text where you’re working on specific ideas . If I’m writing a paper on the history of the run up to World War I, for example, I might decide to mark all the areas where I discuss treaty arrangements in green , all the areas where I discuss colonial expansion in blue , the parts that discuss arms manufacturing and trade in red , the areas that take on nationalism in yellow , and so on. Once I’ve visualized these ideas with color, I can see more easily whether or not I keep returning to the same topics or whether I need to restructure any portions of my essay. Be careful, though–you don’t want to create artificial distinctions that might negatively impact your overall point. For instance, if a conflict over colonial expansion leads to a treaty arrangement, I would need to be very careful about using the context in which I’m discussing that treaty dictate how I code that sentence or paragraph.

3) If you are worried about repeating ideas because you have run out of things to write about, perhaps your best bet is to look for ways to open your text back up for discussion with questions. You might ask someone you trust to be critical to read your work with a skeptical eye and ask you any questions that arise. You can even play that role yourself and think of any possible counterarguments that a reader might make, even if you don’t find those arguments particularly persuasive yourself. Entertaining a different perspective and reframing your point might allow you to fill out your essay without repeating the same or similar points ad nauseam . One great way to get this kind of perspective is to (shameless plug) visit the WFU Writing Center !

4) If you’re worried about repeating words or phrases, you can use the “find” feature in your word processing program to highlight all of the instances where you’ve used it. Once you’ve identified the problem areas, you can look for ways to combine sentences using coordination or subordination, replace nouns with pronouns, or (very carefully) use a thesaurus to diversify your vocabulary. The first step here is developing enough of an ear to “hear” the repetition and then to make that repetition visible so that it can be addressed. One way that I’ve found particularly effective is to read my work aloud or even to record myself reading and to listen as if I were an audience member. Nothing will help you recognize word and phrase repetition like having to say the words on the page out loud–one of the many reasons why we take this very step in the Writing Center .

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Josh Bernoff

Repetition in writing: why it happens, what it means, and how to fix it

Every editor has had this experience: deep into a manuscript, you find yourself reading a familiar passage. Sure enough, it duplicates content that was earlier in the manuscript. Don’t just delete it. Ask yourself why it’s there, and use that knowledge to make the manuscript better.

Why writers repeat themselves

All writers repeat information in nonfiction. Yup. Everyone repeats information. They repeat themselves. Pretty annoying, don’t you think?

Let’s say an author is writing a book on marketing. That author may have a heartfelt belief that it’s essential to measure the impact of emails — that’s sort of an idée fixe for the author.

The author may then, unconsciously, write about how to measure the impact of emails in multiple places. You read about it in the section on emails, then in the section on measurement, then in the section on how to attribute value to various marketing strategies.

Sometimes the author recollects having mentioned it before, and writes, “As I mentioned earlier” — and then repeats the same content.

This stuff drives readers crazy. The editor needs to flag and fix it.

But why does the writer do it?

The reason is frequently one or more of the following:

• The author has an idea they frequently like to reference.
• The author is writing in stream of consciousness, rather than following an organized plan.
• It’s not clear where the idea belongs, so it ends up in multiple places.
• The problematic organization of the manuscript makes it unclear where the idea best belongs, so pieces of it appear in different places.

There are three approaches to correcting repetition:

• Delete all but one instance.
• Reorganize the manuscript to eliminate the repetition.

Ignoring repetition is always the wrong approach

You could just leave the repeated passage in, or put a little “Once again,” in front of it.

This is a big mistake.

Readers annoyed at reading repeated content will stop reading. As a writer, you not only lose the ability to retain their attention, you replace it with resentment.

You may also be missing warning signs about deeper problems in the manuscript.

So don’t ignore the problem.

Delete and combine is the simplest approach

If the problem is just one repeated idea or passage, the solution is to determine where best to include it.

Look at the repeated passages. Bring them all together in a separate document. Identify the best sentences and phrases and facts, and assemble them into a single passage. Put that passage where it seems to fit best (often, the place where you introduce the idea).

In the other places, include a cross reference: “The justification is the Peter Principle, as I described in Chapter 2.”

Eliminating repetition in this way makes manuscripts shorter. That’s a good thing; fewer words means more impact .

If repetition recurs, consider reorganizing the manuscript

Sometimes, with a given manuscript organization, it’s hard to determine one place to put an idea. You might describe the idea in Chapter 2, explain how it applies to a given problem in Chapter 3, and show how it is an example of a larger idea in Chapter 7.

That’s fine. Just look at all those examples and make sure you’re not repeating exactly the same content. Build on earlier content create new insights in later content.

But if you find repetition all over the manuscript, it may be that your organization is wrong.

In the example of the marketing book I cited earlier, maybe there should be a chapter on email that describes all the ways to craft it, deploy it, and measure its impact. Perhaps the manuscript should be organized around channels (email, Web ads, social media, and so on) rather than being organized around stages (conceive, deploy, measure, adjust).

These are hard problems to solve. You’re basically looking at a two-dimensional table and deciding whether to organize your writing by rows or by columns. It’s even more challenging if there are more than two dimensions.

To decide if reorganizing is worth it, actually create that table and fill it in with ideas. You’ll soon see whether you can even go forward with rearranging the content.

The idea of reorganizing the content may seem intimidating. But in my experience, dreading it is far worse than actually doing it. You’d be amazed how quickly you can move around existing content and glue it together in a new way.

If repetition is telling you that your manuscript’s organization is flawed, put in the time to figure out why. Don’t ignore the warning signs. Because if you can fix them with a new organization, your book will not only be shorter, it will be easier to understand and remember.

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how is this repetition In the complicated field of family services, maintaining safety while maintaining confidentiality presents a challenge that demands professionals strike a careful balance between upholding privacy and shielding individuals or families from harm.

Excellent article. Great advice. Repetition in my yet unpublished memoir is something my conscience has pricked me about for years!

My problem is that I have written something in a way I liked and later written something else on the same or a similar topic in a way I liked even better than the first iteration!!

A screen can only show so much. I have been too stingy to print it all out but in the back of my mind I feel this and a real ink pen is the only satisfactory way of cutting the right bit(s) while retaining the significance of the point(s) I was making.

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What is Repetition in Writing? Examples, Definitions, and How to Create Them

Repe t ition, or epistrophe, is w hen you use the same words or phrases more than once in your writing.  It can be used to emphasize certain points or ideas , but it can also get really annoying , really quickly . So use it sparing ly , or you risk making your reader want to hit the ‘ skip ‘ button . A famous example is the ‘ ros es are red , v io lets are blue ‘ of the classic Valentine ‘s Day poem .

The Purpose of Repetition in Writing

Repetition serves various functions in writing. It can be the salt in the soup, the cherry on top, or the annoying fly buzzing around the reader’s head. Let’s explore some of the key reasons why writers choose to use repetition:

Emphasis on a Point

Sometimes, a point is so important that it deserves a bit of extra attention. Repetition can help drive home the point and make sure it sticks in the reader’s mind like gum on a shoe.

Establishing Rhythm and Flow

Setting a mood or tone.

Repeating words or phrases can also help to set a particular mood or tone. Like a foghorn in the distance, repetition can evoke feelings of suspense, anticipation, or even unease.

Unifying Ideas

Repetition can serve as a thread that ties together different ideas or themes in a piece of writing. It can be the glue that holds the entire piece together, providing a sense of cohesion and unity.

Types of Repetition

Repetition comes in many flavors, each with its unique taste. Here are a few types of repetition that writers often use:

To survive, they needed food. To survive, they needed water. To survive, they needed shelter.

Epiphora, also known as epistrophe, is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of consecutive clauses or sentences. It’s like a drum roll leading to a big finale. For example:

He wanted to go on an adventure, but fear held him back. He wanted to chase his dreams, but fear held him back. He wanted to live life to the fullest, but fear held him back.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. It can make a sentence feel as smooth as a river stone or as jagged as a mountain peak. For example:

Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven sneaky snakes.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in words. Like a warm cup of cocoa on a chilly night, it can create a comforting sense of harmony. For example:

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

Examples of Repetition in Literature

Example 1: “the raven” by edgar allan poe.

In this classic poem, Poe uses the word “nevermore” as a refrain. The repetition of this word helps to create a haunting, melancholic atmosphere.

“Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.'”

Example 2: “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”

Example 3: “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Thomas employs repetition in this poem to create a sense of urgency and defiance:

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

How to Create Repetition in Writing

Now that we’ve seen repetition in action, let’s explore some tips for adding a sprinkle of repetition to your own writing:

1. Identify the Purpose

Before using repetition, consider the purpose it will serve. Is it for emphasis, rhythm, mood, or unity? Knowing the purpose will help guide you in choosing the right type of repetition.

2. Keep It Simple

3. use it sparingly.

Like hot sauce on a taco, a little repetition goes a long way. Too much repetition can become tiresome or annoying to the reader. Use it judiciously to keep the reader engaged and interested.

4. Vary Your Repetition

5. revise and edit.

In conclusion, repetition can be a powerful tool in a writer’s toolbox when used with care and intention. By understanding its purpose, types, and how to use it effectively, you can create memorable, engaging pieces that resonate with readers. Now, go forth and repeat—just not too much!

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What is Repetition — Definition and Examples for Writers

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L iterary devices aim to utilize words to communicate more efficiently and more effectively to readers and audiences. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at a literary device that aims to do just that simply by using the same word or phrase again and again. This is of course repetition.  Repetition may seem straightforward, but there are various types of repetition that are defined by how and where words or phrases are repeated. So, what is repetition actually used for? Let’s take a look at those types of repetition and how iconic writers have used them throughout history. 

what is repetition?

First, let’s define repetition.

Although there are various types of repetition, they all fall under the same definition. Let’s take a look at the repetition definition to better identify when it is being used. 

REPETITION DEFINITION

What is repetition.

Repetition is a literary device in which a word or phrase is used multiple times. Repetition can be found throughout literature. Most commonly, it is found in poetry and speeches to create rhythm or emphasize a word or phrase. There are various types of repetition defined by where and how words and phrases are repeated in a body of text. 

Famous Repetition Examples in Cinema:

• “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” - Taxi Driver (1976)
• “Wax on. Wax off.” - Karate Kid (1984)
• “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” - On the Waterfront (1954)

Repetition meaning

Function of repetition.

Repetition can be found throughout written literature and throughout verbal speeches. Why is it so common? Repetition is primarily effective at two things: emphasis and rhythm.

1. Emphasis

Simply repeating a phrase or word is an effective way at emphasizing specific ideas to a reader or audience. If a word or phrase appears only once, a reader may overlook it. When it is repeated, the word or phrase (and, by extension, the idea being communicated) registers more directly in the reader’s mind. 

Repetition can also create rhythm in text both written and spoken language. This is especially effective at engaging audiences when used in oral speeches. Speeches can become mundane if they become simply read. Repetition can create rhythm and musicality to a speech that more deeply engages audiences. 

Related Posts

• A Complete Guide to Literary Devices →
• What is Alliteration? Definition and Examples →
• How Writers Use Anaphora in Speeches & Dialogue →

Repetition examples

Types of repetition.

There are various types of repetition that are defined by structure and form. While all repetition has similar effects that we touched on above, different types of repetition can have different impacts.

1. Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. 

"What is Anaphora?"  •  A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

In the historical novel A Tale of Two Cities , Charles Dickens utilizes anaphora to create a memorable opening paragraph. 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

2. Epistrophe

Similar to anaphora is epistrophe . Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or group of words at the end of successive clauses or sentences. 

In her song “Single Ladies” Beyonce uses epistrophe in the chorus of the song. 

“‘Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

If you liked it then you should’ve put a ring on it

Don’t be mad once you see that he want it

If you liked it then you should’ve put a ring ”

3. Symploce

Symploce is the use of both anaphora and epistrophe. Bill Clinton famously used symploce in  his speech at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

“When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.”

4. Mesodiplosis

The repetition of a word in the middle of a phrase or clause is known as mesodiplosis. An example of mesodiplosis can be found in the bible.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

5. Epizeuxis

One of the most simple types of repetition is epizeuxis. Epizeuxis is the repetition of a single word in sequence. An example of this can be found in the famous nursery rhyme "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." 

REPETITION LITERARY DEVICE

Repetition vs. repetition of sounds.

Within the realm of literary devices , repetition and repetition of sounds are often grouped together. However, there are key differences between literary devices that repeat words and phrases and literary devices that repeat specific sounds. To clarify this, let’s take a look at literary devices that repeat specific sounds. 

1. Consonance

The repetition of sounds made by consonants is known as consonance. A famous tongue twister example of this is “ Sh elley s ells sh ells by the s ea sh ore.” 

2. Assonance

Assonance is the repetitive use of vowel sounds within a single line of text. Often referred to as “vowel rhyming,” assonance typically utilizes recurring vowel sounds in the middle of consecutive words. 

These words have to be close together in a line of text so that the repetition of the vowel sound is more noticeable. For example, Edgar Allen Poe uses assonance in his poem “The Bells:”

"Hear the m e llow w e dding b e lls" 

3. Alliteration

Alliteration is a literary technique when two or more words are linked that share the same first consonant sound. In the famous song “Let it Be” by The Beatles the lyrics " Whisper words of wisdom …” are an example of alliteration. 

• A Complete List of Literary Devices →
• What is a Metaphor? Definition and Examples →
• Different Types of Irony Every Storyteller Should Know →

Explore more literary devices

Repetition is just one of many literary devices and types of figurative language , including anaphora , assonance , and alliteration . If you're a writer and want to develop your craft fully, do yourself a favor and continue this exploration. The next article on literary devices is a gateway to many of these tools that help add substance and style to any type of written work.

Up Next: Literary Devices Index →

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What Is Repetition? Definition & 15+ Examples

Ever wondered why that catchy tune is on repeat in your head or why stirring speeches often echo the same phrases? That’s the magic of repetition , a simple yet powerful tool weaving through music, language, and even our minds.

Repetition, in its simplest form, is the act of repeating something, be it a word, phrase, or motif. This universal pattern dances everywhere, from our favorite songs and grand artworks to the ways we learn and remember.

In this article, we will delve into the concept of repetition, unravel its definition, and explore intriguing examples from our everyday life. Prepare to see the world through a new lens!

Table of Contents

What Is Repetition?

Repetition, as a literary tool, involves echoing a word, phrase, or an entire sentence to stress its importance or generate a desired impact. It’s frequently utilized in various writing styles, including poetry and prose.

The author’s intent behind repetitions is often to spotlight a specific theme or idea.

Types of Repetition

There are several types of repetition that can be used effectively in writing:

Anaphora refers to the practice of starting consecutive clauses or sentences with the same word or phrase.

This powerful rhetorical technique enhances focus and unity and is often found in speeches, poetry, and prose to strengthen a concept.

Alliteration

This is when consonant sounds are repeated at the beginning of nearby words. It’s a popular device in poetry, literature, and even advertising, used to create enjoyable rhythms and connect words with similar connotations.

Here, non-rhyming words close together share the same vowel sounds. Assonance introduces a melody into the text, contributing to the rhythm and mood by forming internal rhymes within phrases or sentences.

This is a rhetorical strategy where two or more clauses are arranged in a mirrored or reversed structure for an artistic effect.

It is frequently used for emphasis or to highlight opposites, creating a “criss-cross” pattern in the sentence structure.

Repeating words or phrases at the end of successive clauses or sentences.

Like anaphora, it’s a rhetorical device that is used to create emphasis, but with the repetition occurring at the clause or sentence’s end, it leaves a strong, lingering impression.

Epistrophe refers to the repetition of certain words or phrases after multiple sentences. Like epiphora, it amplifies the final idea, etching a lasting impact on the audience’s mind.

Epizeuxis is the act of saying the same word or sentence back to back, generally for emphasis. It creates a dramatic atmosphere and significantly spotlights the reiterated word or phrase.

Mesodiplosis

Mesodiplosis is characterized by the recurrence of a word or sentence in the middle of multiple sentences. It links ideas together, enhancing the text’s harmony and setting a rhythmic pattern.

Symploce is the blend of anaphora and epiphora, resulting in the recurrence of words or sentences at the start and end of consecutive sentences.

This intricate method reinforces rhythms and emphasizes points from various aspects.

Purpose of Repetition

Repetition serves various purposes in writing, including:

It Emphasizes an Idea

Repeating words or phrases can emphasize a specific point, making it more memorable for the reader.

It Provides Clarity

In some cases, repetition can clarify a writer’s meaning or intent, especially when complex ideas are being conveyed.

It Creates Rhythm and Musicality

Repetition also adds rhythm and musicality to a text, making it more engaging and pleasant to read. Literary works, such as poetry and prose, use repetition to create a sense of rhythm and beauty in their writing.

Similarly, songwriters and rappers use repetitive clauses and rhymes to create catchy tunes that leave a lasting impression on their audience.

It Reinforces an Idea

Repeated words or phrases can reinforce a central theme or idea, helping to strengthen the overall message of a piece of writing.

Example : Using repetition can be found in persuasive writing , such as speeches. When trying to persuade an audience, a speaker may use repetition to reinforce an important point, making it more memorable and convincing.

It Elicits Emotion

In addition to reinforcing ideas and creating rhythm, repetition can also elicit emotions from readers. By repeating specific words or phrases, authors have the power to evoke a variety of feelings, such as joy, sadness, anger, or nostalgia.

This emotional connection can help readers become more invested in the narrative and relate to the characters or themes presented in the text.

Repetition in Literature

The three common types of repetition are:

Examples in Poetry

In Walt Whitman’s poem I Hear America Singing , he repeatedly uses the phrase “I hear” at the beginning of several lines:

An example of an epiphora can be found in T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men :

A well-known example comes from John Keats’s Endymion :

Examples in Prose

In prose, writers also make use of repetition for similar purposes:

• Creating rhythm
• Emotional impact

In Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, the opening sentence employs anaphora:

Epiphora is demonstrated in the conclusion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , with the repeated phrase “borne back” :

Chiasmus can be illustrated through Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray :

Authors and speakers utilize these techniques to enrich their works, making them more engaging and memorable for readers.

Employing repetition helps bring focus to essential themes and ideas, captivating the audience with a confident, knowledgeable, and clear writing style.

Examples of Repetition in Speeches

Martin Luther King’s famous speech includes the phrase:

This repetition creates emphasis, making the phrase more memorable.

Charles Dickens utilized assonance in his opening line from A Tale of Two Citie s:

Assonance can enhance the musicality of speech, making it more appealing to the audience.

A famous example can be found in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven , where the consonant sound “r” is repeated throughout the poem:

In William Shakespeare’s King Lear , Lear exclaims:

This repetition communicates the character’s distress and shock.

Winston Churchill’s famous speech We Shall Fight on the Beaches provides an example:

The repetition of “we shall fight” strengthens the resolve and determination of the audience.

In A Tale of Two Cities , Dickens uses this technique:

Here, the words “it was” and “times” are repeated, creating a rhythmic effect and highlighting the contrasts.

This technique can be seen in Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man :

The repetition of “ M an” emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and understanding humanity.

Repetition in Daily Life

Examples in conversation.

Repetition is common in daily conversations, as it helps emphasize a point or clarify a message.

Example : Someone might say, “I need you to be careful, very careful” to stress the importance of being cautious.

Additionally, repetition can be used in disagreements to convey strong feelings — when a person might say:

Examples in Children’s Songs

Children’s songs often feature repetitive lyrics or melodies, making them easy to remember and enjoyable for young minds.

Example: A good one is Old MacDonald Had a Farm , where each verse repeats the melody and animal sounds. Repetition in children’s songs not only makes them catchy but also aids in language development and memory retention.

Examples in Advertising

Repetition is a powerful tool in advertising, as it makes brands and slogans memorable.

Example: Repeating a jingle or catchphrase helps create recognition and familiarity among consumers. Some popular ones include:

• McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It
• Nike’s Just Do It

These short, repetitive phrases stick in the minds of consumers, encouraging brand loyalty and prompting enthusiasm for the product.

Repetition in Learning and Psychology

It reinforces neural pathways.

Repetition is a crucial tool in learning and psychology. It helps our brains form habits and retain information more effectively.

By repeating actions or information, we reinforce neural pathways, leading to improved recall and performance.

Example : The use of flashcards. Students repeatedly review the cards to memorize facts and concepts.

This tactic relies on a technique called spaced repetition , which involves studying material at increasingly spaced intervals, enhancing long-term retention.

It Forms Habits

In psychology, repetition is essential for forming habits.

Example : A straightforward one is the habit of brushing teeth every day . By repeating the action daily, it becomes a routine behavior and feels unnatural when skipped.

It Develops Skills

Repetition also aids in skill development.

Example : Athletes practice specific moves repetitively to establish muscle memory, allowing them to execute the actions with ease and precision during competitions.

Tips to Harness Repetition for Effective Learning

• Use flashcards and spaced repetition for memorizing facts and concepts.
• Establish daily routines to create healthy habits.
• Practice skills regularly to improve performance and muscle memory.

Repetition in Practice and Exercise

Exercise routines.

Repetition plays a significant role in exercise routines. When people perform a set amount of repetitions for an exercise, they reinforce muscle memory and build strength.

Example : If a person does three sets of ten push-ups, they are practicing the push-up movement 30 times in total, leading to improved muscular endurance and technique.

Skill Development

In skill development, repetition serves as a crucial tool for refining abilities and reducing errors.

When an individual practices a skill repeatedly, they become more proficient and efficient in performing the task.

Example : A factory worker who repeats a specific assembly process hundreds of times will eventually master the technique. This repeated practice also results in fewer mistakes, ultimately increasing productivity.

Repetition is equally important in the learning process, as it aids in memory retention and understanding of new information.

Example : Students often use repetitive strategies, such as flashcards, to reinforce the material they have learned. By repeatedly reviewing the content, they can better recall information when needed, such as during an exam.

Additionally, practicing a new skill or concept in different contexts allows learners to gain a deeper understanding and make connections between various topics.

Repetition in Dance

Repetition is a fundamental element in dance, serving as a means to:

• Create structure.
• Develop movement themes.
• Enhance the viewer’s understanding of the choreography.

Movements, Patterns, and Motifs

It involves the intentional repeating of dance moves, patterns, or motifs during a performance. This powerful tool allows choreographers to communicate their artistic visions effectively and showcase the dancers’ skills.

Repetition in Ballet

In classical ballet, repetition is often employed through the use of variations and ensembles.

• Variations are solo pieces that repeat specific steps or forms, allowing the dancer to demonstrate their technical mastery and artistic interpretation.
• Ensembles feature multiple dancers performing repetitive phrases in unison or canon, emphasizing the harmony and coordination of the group.

Repetition in Contemporary Dance

Contemporary dance frequently utilizes repetition as a means of establishing movement motifs.

A movement motif is a recurring series of movements that hold significance within the choreography. Its repetition helps form a cohesive narrative or thematic base, allowing the audience to recognize and connect with the piece.

By altering tempo, dynamics, and spatial dimensions, choreographers can evoke a range of emotions and create unique storytelling experiences.

Repetition in Dance Practice

In addition to building structure, repetition also plays a crucial role in learning and retaining dance techniques.

During practice sessions, dancers frequently repeat steps and combinations in order to develop muscle memory and refine their movements.

The continuous process of repetition allows performers to perfect their techniques, ensuring that they can execute even the most complex choreography with precision and confidence.

Repetition in Music

Repetition in music serves as a way to establish rhythm, create pattern, and build tension in a piece. It plays a vital role in engaging the listener’s attention and provides a sense of familiarity.

The Use of Motifs

One common example of repetition in music is the use of motifs. A motif is a short musical phrase or pattern that reoccurs throughout a piece.

By repeating this motif, the composer can create a sense of unity and coherence within the composition.

The Use of Rhythmic Patterns

Another aspect of repetition in music is the use of recurring rhythmic patterns. Drumbeats, bass lines, and other rhythmic elements often feature repeating patterns to give the music a sense of movement and stability.

Larger Musical Structures

Repetition can also be found in the larger structures of a musical composition.

Example : The verse-chorus form, which is prevalent in popular music, relies on the repetition of sections to create a predictable and accessible structure for the listener.

Creating Contrast and Emphasis

In some instances, repetition can be used to create contrast or emphasize a particular element of the music.

By deliberately repeating specific musical ideas, composers can draw attention to the unique qualities of these ideas and set them apart from the rest of the piece.

Striking a Balance: Repetition and Variation

It is important to find a balance between repetition and variation in music. Too much repetition may cause the piece to feel monotonous , while too little can result in a lack of cohesion and clarity.

Composers often incorporate subtle changes in repeated sections to maintain interest and keep listeners engaged.

Repetition in Art

Repetition is a technique used in art to create balance and unity. Artists utilize this strategy to emphasize specific elements, leading the viewer’s eyes through the composition.

There are several ways an artist can employ repetition:

Lines and Shapes

One method is the use of recurring lines or shapes. These patterns can establish a sense of rhythm and order within a piece.

Such repetition can be observed in M.C. Escher’s tessellated works, where interlocking figures fit together like puzzle pieces.

Color Schemes

Another example of repetition in art is through color schemes. Monochromatic artworks use various shades of a single color to create depth and visual interest.

Example : “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh is an instance where repetition of color and swirling brushstrokes contribute to a harmonious, expressive scene.

Arrangement of Elements

Repetition can also be found in the arrangement of elements within a composition.

Example : Each figure in “Dance” by Henri Matisse conveys a sense of movement through the repetitive positioning of their stances. The continuity created by this repetition leads our eyes around the artwork.

Tips for Using Repetition in Your Own Art

• Find a central theme or motif to repeat throughout the piece.
• Variations can help to maintain interest and prevent monotony.
• Experiment with different mediums, techniques, and scales.

Other Forms of Repetition

Anadiplosis.

Anadiplosis is a form of repetition where the last word of one clause or sentence is repeated at the beginning of the next clause or sentence. This technique creates a sense of continuity and emphasis.

Example : F. Scott Fitzgerald uses anadiplosis in The Great Gatsby :

Antimetabole

Antimetabole involves the repetition of words or phrases in reverse order to create contrast or highlight a particular point.

Example : This can be found in John F. Kennedy’s famous quote:

Diacope is the repetition of a word or phrase with intervening words between them. This technique draws attention to a particular idea or theme.

Example : In the movie The Wizard of Oz , the phrase “There’s no place like home” is an example of diacope.

Epanalepsis

Epanalepsis involves repeating the initial word or phrase of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence. This form of repetition adds emphasis and balance to a statement.

Polyptoton is the repetition of words derived from the same root in different forms or cases. This technique can emphasize specific aspects of a concept or idea.

Example : In the phrase “With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder,” the words “ feeding ” and “ food ” are derived from the same root and create a polyptoton.

Ploce is a type of repetition where a word or phrase is repeated multiple times for emphasis or to elaborate on its meaning. This technique can be used for stylistic effect or to draw attention to a specific idea.

Example : Seen in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth :

Potential Pitfalls of Repetition

Repetition fatigue.

Repetition fatigue occurs when a reader becomes tired of seeing the same word, phrase, or structure repeatedly in a piece of writing. It can lead to the reader losing interest in the content.

Repetitive Writing Style

A repetitive writing style can make a piece feel monotonous and dull. In addition to varying vocabulary and sentence structure, writers can use different sentence lengths and types to create a more engaging rhythm.

Furthermore, breaking up long paragraphs with bullet points or tables can improve readability.

Over-Emphasis

Repetition can be an effective way to emphasize a point. However, excessive repetition can make a piece seem redundant.

Writers should strike a balance between emphasizing key points and providing new information to keep the reader engaged.

Overusing repetition in a piece of writing can lead to a lack of clarity. Readers may become confused about the author’s intended meaning if repetition is used without a clear purpose.

Writers should ensure that repetition is used intentionally and effectively to avoid negatively impacting the reader’s understanding.

To put it simply, refer to the table below:

Frequently Asked Questions

Does repetition contribute to language learning.

Yes, it does. Repeating vocabulary and sentence structures helps language learners to internalize and recall them. Remember the times when you repeated a foreign phrase till it started sounding familiar?

Is there a difference between repetition and redundancy?

Good question! While they seem similar, redundancy is unnecessary repetition and often adds nothing new. Repetition, on the other hand, emphasizes an idea, strengthening its impact.

So, repetition, far from just being about repeating things, turns out to be a vital part of our daily lives, shaping our music, language, and learning.

Next time you spot a repeated phrase, a song chorus, or pattern, remember the magic of repetition at work. It’s fascinating how doing, saying, or seeing something over and over can have such a powerful impact, isn’t it?

With repetition, the ordinary can become extraordinary!

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Jessa Claire

English Studies

This website is dedicated to English Literature, Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, English Language and its teaching and learning.

Using Repetition in Writing

Repetition, as a literary device, involves the deliberate recurrence of words, phrases, or structures within a text. Its primary purpose is to emphasize, reinforce, or underscore key themes, ideas, or emotions.

Introduction

Table of Contents

Repetition, as a literary device , involves the deliberate recurrence of words, phrases, or structures within a text. Its primary purpose is to emphasize, reinforce, or underscore key themes, ideas, or emotions. Using repetition, authors can create rhythm, pattern, and resonance in their writing, enhancing the overall impact of their work. This device is a powerful tool for writers to draw the reader’s attention to significant elements and craft memorable, impactful prose.

How to Create a Repetition

Remember, while using repetition is a powerful tool in writing, it is essential to use it judiciously. Too much use of one type of repetition could become monotonous or redundant, so balance is key.

Benefits of Using Repetition

There are several benefits to using repetition in writing, including:

Repetition in Literary Theory

Repetition is a literary device that is used in various literary theories to achieve different effects. Here are eight examples of how repetition is used in literary theory:

Suggested Readings

• Fled, Steven. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression. 2nd ed., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
• Hobsbaum, Philip. Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form . Routledge, 2013.
• Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2002.
• Shklovsky, Viktor. Theory of Prose. Translated by Benjamin Sher, Dalkey Archive Press, 1991.

You may read more on Literary Devices below:

• Discourse: Literary Device
• Writing Biographies: Critiquing It
• Biography: A Literary Genre
• Jargon: Using and Critiquing It

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How to Use Repetition to Develop Effective Paragraphs

Cohesion Strategies for Writing

• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

An important quality of an effective paragraph is unity . A unified paragraph sticks to one topic from start to finish, with every sentence contributing to the central purpose and main idea of that paragraph.

But a strong paragraph is more than just a collection of loose sentences. Those sentences need to be clearly connected so that readers can follow along, recognizing how one detail leads to the next. A paragraph with clearly connected sentences is said to be cohesive .

Repetition of Key Words

Repeating keywords in a paragraph is an important technique for achieving cohesion. Of course, careless or excessive repetition is boring—and a source of clutter . But used skillfully and selectively, as in the paragraph below, this technique can hold sentences together and focus the reader's attention on a central idea.

We Americans are a charitable and humane people: we have institutions devoted to every good cause from rescuing homeless cats to preventing World War III. But what have we done to promote the art of thinking ? Certainly we make no room for thought in our daily lives. Suppose a man were to say to his friends, "I'm not going to PTA tonight (or choir practice or the baseball game) because I need some time to myself, some time to think "? Such a man would be shunned by his neighbors; his family would be ashamed of him. What if a teenager were to say, "I'm not going to the dance tonight because I need some time to think "? His parents would immediately start looking in the Yellow Pages for a psychiatrist. We are all too much like Julius Caesar: we fear and distrust people who think too much. We believe that almost anything is more important than thinking . (Carolyn Kane, from "Thinking: A Neglected Art." Newsweek , December 14, 1981)

Notice that the author uses various forms of the same word— think, thinking, thought —to link the different examples and reinforce the main idea of the paragraph. (For the benefit of budding rhetoricians , this device is called polyptoton .)

Repetition of Key Words and Sentence Structures

A similar way to achieve cohesion in our writing is to repeat a particular sentence structure along with a keyword or phrase. Although we usually try to vary the length and shape of our sentences , now and then we may choose to repeat a construction to emphasize connections between related ideas.

Here's a short example of structural repetition from the play Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw:

There are couples who dislike one another furiously for several hours at a time; there are couples who dislike one another permanently; and there are couples who never dislike one another; but these last are people who are incapable of disliking anybody.

Notice how Shaw's reliance on semicolons (rather than periods) reinforces the sense of unity and cohesion in this passage.

Extended Repetition

On rare occasions, emphatic repetitions may extend beyond just two or three main clauses . Not long ago, the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk provided an example of extended repetition (specifically, the device called anaphora ) in his Nobel Prize Lecture, "My Father's Suitcase" :

The question we writers are asked most often, the favorite question, is: Why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write. I write because I can’t do normal work as other people do. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life only by changing it. I write because I want others, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all life’s beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but — as in a dream — can’t quite get to. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy. (The Nobel Lecture, 7 December 2006. Translated from the Turkish, by Maureen Freely. The Nobel Foundation 2006)

Two well-known examples of extended repetition appear in our Essay Sampler: Judy Brady's essay "Why I Want a Wife" (included in part three of the Essay Sampler) and the most famous portion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech .

Final Reminder: Needless repetition that only clutters our writing should be avoided. But the careful repetition of keywords and phrases can be an effective strategy for fashioning cohesive paragraphs.

• How to Develop and Organize a Classification Essay
• Take This Test and Learn How to Make Your Writing More Interesting
• Adding Commas to a Paragraph
• Classification Paragraph, Essay, Speech, or Character Study: 50 Topics
• Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing
• Practice in Making a Simple Outline for a Cause & Effect Paragraph
• How to Start a Book Report
• Structure of a Descriptive Essay
• An Essay Revision Checklist
• Examples of Great Introductory Paragraphs
• How to Write a Professional Email
• 100 Persuasive Essay Topics
• What an Essay Is and How to Write One
• What Is Expository Writing?
• The Art of the Freshman Essay: Still Boring From Within?
• How to Write a Narrative Essay or Speech (With Topic Ideas)

• Literary Terms

When & How to Use Repetition

• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Use Repetition

How to use Repetition

Repetition is a simple and fairly easy device to use in writing. In fact, all you have to do is:

• Choose words that you think are important and worth stressing
• Repeat those words in a way that is memorable. Doing so helps makes them stick out in your audience’s mind and establishes them as meaningful.
• Not overuse it, or it will loose its effect—just use repetition at points when it will have the most impact.

The important thing is that you use repetition in a smart way that adds emphasis to particular ideas. That emphasis can make the tone more convincing, more emotional, more dramatic, etc. Furthermore, repetition can create rhythm that makes a work’s style appealing, which is then more attractive to the audience.

It’s also important to note how not to use repetition—in other words, lazily reusing the same words over and over. For instance, take the following sentence:

She raced to the front door. She opened it, but no one was there. She raced back up the stairs to finish putting on her makeup. When she was done, she raced to the front door again and left.

This is an example of poor use of repetition—the word “raced” is repeated, but it doesn’t strengthen the sentences, rather, it sounds like the author didn’t have better word choices.

When to use Repetition

Authors use repetition a lot, in both literature and speech—it’s a great technique that any writer can use. As a standard, you should repeat a word when you want certain parts of your writing to stand out or be very clear. Repetition is common in fiction and nonfiction writing, creative writing, persuasive writing, formal or informal writing—as mentioned, it is found across all genres , styles, and forms of literature. It is also an excellent device to use when delivering a speech, whose success relies on the audience’s feelings about the speaker’s words.

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

Definition of Repetition

Common examples of repetition, examples of repetition in movie lines, famous examples of repetition, differences between repetition of sounds.

In addition to using repeating words and phrases as a literary device, writers may use repetition of sounds as well. Overall, the repetition of sound can provide rhythm , pacing , and musicality to a work of poetry or prose. These types of repeated sounds are consonance , assonance , and alliteration .

Writing Repetition

It’s essential that writers bear in mind that their audience may experience fatigue if repetition is overused. As a literary device, repetition should be used deliberately and not just for the sake of repeating a word or phrase. However, when used properly, repetition can be an influential device in writing.

Sense of Rhythm

Create emphasis, purpose of repetition in literature, use of repetition in sentences, examples of repetition in literature, example 1: macbeth (william shakespeare).

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow , Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.

 Example 2: A Dog Has Died (Pablo Neruda; translated by Alfred Yankauer)

My dog has died. I buried him in the garden next to a rusted old machine. Some day I’ll join him right there, but now he’s gone with his shaggy coat, his bad manners and his cold nose, and I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky for any human being, I believe in a heaven I’ll never enter. Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom where my dog waits for my arrival waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Example 3: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Carson McCullers)

But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.

Synonyms of Repetition

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What Is Repetition in a Story: Definition and Examples of Repetition in Literature

by Fija Callaghan

Repetition as a literary device is present in almost every kind of writing, be it a novel, short story, poem, or essay that we’ve come to know and love. When it’s used effectively, we often don’t even realize it’s there. Repetition can be present in words, phrases, sounds, images, or themes. It’s what gives stories a sense of unity and persuades the reader of their message.

But hang on—isn’t repetitive writing a bad thing? Don’t we want our stories to be fresh and new all the time?

Poorly used repetition can absolutely drag down a piece of writing, while repetition used with intention and precision can elevate it to the next level. Let’s look at the repetition definition with some helpful examples, and how repetition works in a story to make it more powerful, memorable, and evocative. By the end of this article, you’ll have learned how to use repetition in a story like a pro.

What is repetition in writing?

In literary terms, repetition refers to a recurring element in a piece of writing . At the line level this might be a sound, word, or phrase; at the broader story level this might be an image, setting, or idea.

We see repetition used all the time in both poetry and classic literature, as well as famous speeches and persuasive arguments in politics. This is because repetition helps drive an idea into the reader or the listener’s mind. For example, this famous line from a speech by Bill Clinton in 1995:

“When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.”

He uses repeated words like “talk,” “us,” and “stand” to encourage solidarity and courage in his listeners. The specific type of repetition he’s used here is called “symploce.” We’ll look at some more types of repetition you can use in a story later on in this article.

One of the other kinds of writing that repetition is most recognizable in is classic fairy tales. You’ll notice that there are always three wishes, three goats crossing the troll bridge, three chances to prove yourself to the fairy in disguise. These stories stay with us forever because of their use of repetition.

Why use repetition in a story?

In literature, repetition works to add emphasis to key ideas. In narration, this can help underline your central themes or enhance the mood of a story. In dialogue, repetition can reveal a lot about character.

For example, the famous children’s book series Madeline always opens with the same several lines:

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. In two straight lines they broke their bread and brushed their teeth and went to bed.

The repeating words help emphasize the sense of order, discipline, and routine. Here the repetition also works to create rhythm and make the words easier for children to remember.

In dialogue, a character’s word choice can reveal their strengths, weaknesses, or the way they want to be perceived by the world around them. For example, stuttering is an example of unintentional repetition of words or sounds that can help define a character’s distinctive voice . A character might also repeatedly apologize when they’re uncertain, or repeatedly use certain words to sound more intellectual or sophisticated.

A famous example of a character’s repeated word choice is in the film The Princess Bride , in which one of the central villains (played by the iconic Wallace Shawn), repeatedly uses the word “inconceivable.” It becomes a trademark of his character and shows us how he wants to project himself to the world.

We’ll show you some more repetition examples in literature below.

Line-level repetition vs. structural repetition

Repetition can happen in a story in two different ways. Line-level repetition is when the same word, sound, or phrase is used to create emphatic effect. Structural repetition is when the same image, symbol, or literary device is repeated throughout the story to highlight its underlying themes.

We’ll look at a few ways to use line-level repetition through recurring words, vowel sounds, or consonant sounds, and how to use repetition on a broader scale to give depth to your story.

Anaphora, epistrophe, and epizeuxis

These three literary devices refer to ways the same words or successive clauses can be used in a piece of writing.

Anaphora is a literary device that uses repeated words or phrases at the beginning of a string of successive sentences . This means that each sentence will begin with the same word or phrase, creating a rhythmic effect and putting emphasis on a central idea.

A good example is the satirical poem “Litany,” by American poet Billy Collins:

You are the bread and the knife, the crystal goblet and the wine. You are the dew on the morning grass and the burning wheel of the sun. You are the white apron of the baker, and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

Three sentences in a row begin with “you are,” which sets a comfortable rhythm for the poem and shows the reader what the poem is going to be about.

Epistrophe is the opposite of anaphora. Instead of repeating sections at the beginning of a sentence, you repeat sections of two or more words at the very end . Here’s an example from a play by William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice :

If you had known the virtue of the ring, Or half her worthiness that gave the ring, Or your own honour to contain the ring, You would not then have parted with the ring.

In this example of repetition, the speaker lands each sentence on “the ring,” putting emphasis on the importance of this pivotal plot device.

When anaphora and epistrophe are both used in the same sentence, it’s called symploce . Bill Clinton’s speech, which we looked at above, is an example of symploce.

Epizeuxis works like anaphora and epistrophe, but instead of clauses or phrases, it’s only one single word that’s repeated . This might be something like a character saying, “I would never lie to you. Never, never, never.” The repetition of the word “never” illustrates the importance of this concept to the character and how much they strive to get the idea across.

The most famous example of epizeuxis in literature is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells,” where he uses repetition of a word to create a bell-like rhythm within the poem:

Yet the ear distinctly tells,     In the jangling,     And the wrangling.   How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—     Of the bells—   Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,     Bells, bells, bells— In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

Here, the repetition works for both emphasis and the sound we hear in our ears as we read it.

Alliteration, assonance, and consonance

These three literary devices take an even closer look at sentence mechanics. They refer to ways a repeating vowel sound or consonant sound can be used to create rhythm in a story or poem.

Alliteration

Alliteration means beginning a series of words or short phrases with the same initial letter or sound. Many of our classic children’s nursery rhymes rely on alliteration: “She sells seashells by the sea shore” uses a mixed alliteration of S sounds and Sh sounds. You’ll notice that alliteration is also popular in marketing; for instance, “Coca-Cola” or “Bed, Bath, and Beyond.” This is because alliteration makes things stick in our ear.

Here’s a literary example of alliteration from The Great Gatsby :

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

The same opening sounds over and over give the line a poetic quality and makes it stand out to the ear.

Assonance means using repeated vowel sounds . This can be anywhere within the line, and it gives the piece a sense of unity to the ear. Note that like alliteration, assonance refers to the sound and not necessarily the letter . For instance, “a peaceful sleep beneath a tree” contains repeating E sounds, even though they’re not all spelled the same way.

Here’s an example from Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Disquieting Muses”:

When on tiptoe the schoolgirls danced, Blinking flashlights like fireflies

In the first half she uses soft I sounds in “girls” and “blinking,” and then hard I sounds in “lights” and “fireflies.”

Consonance is the opposite of assonance; both refer to repetition of sounds, but this is the repetition of consonant sounds rather than vowels. Like assonance, consonance refers strictly to the sound in the ear rather than the letters in the eye.

Irish poet Seamus Heaney uses consonance in his poem “Blackberry Picking”:

The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair

He uses a repeating F consonant sound and hard T consonant sound that give the poem a sharp quality which matches the story being told. You can use these repeated vowels and consonants to emulate the mood of the piece.

You don’t need to memorize each of these literary devices to use them effectively in your story (although if you manage to causally drop “epizeuxis” into a sentence, your friends will be super impressed), but this gives you an idea of what mindful repetition is capable of and how you can use it in your work.

Thematic repetition

Repetition can be marvelously effective in creating powerful sentences and paragraphs. Another use for them is on a larger scale by repeating certain images or ideas within your story. When writers use a symbol multiple times throughout a narrative, it’s called a motif .

Other ways to use thematic repetition may be to include the same setting multiple times. For instance, the book Ladies’ Night at Finbar’s Hotel is a collection of short interlocking stories all set at the same hotel, but from different perspectives. You can explore ways to refer back to the same place several times throughout your story, giving it a deeper meaning for the reader each time.

Another great use for thematic repetition is if you’re trying to find a way to end your story . You can use repeating elements to bring it together and give it a sense of completion.

For instance, if your story opened with your main character coming back to their childhood home, you may choose to end your story by showing them walking away from it forever. The image from your story is now inverted to create a different meaning. Alternatively, you could show them returning to their childhood home after a short walk and deciding to stay there forever. This gives a repeating image from your story new depth.

Any time you want to enhance the emotion of your story, look for ways you can repeat images or ideas in new, powerful ways.

Effective examples of repetition in literature

As you can see, all these different types of repetition are tricks that writers can use to engage readers, create rhythm, and support the theme of your story. Let’s look at some repetition examples of how a few writers have used these techniques in their literary work, both in poetry and prose.

The Song of Hiawatha , by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions, With the odors of the forest With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions, And their wild reverberations As of thunder in the mountains? I should answer, I should tell you, “From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs, From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes.”

Longfellow’s Indiginous-inspired epic uses repetition to imitate the sound of a story sung around a campfire. In this opening stanza, he explains that he heard the tale he’s about to tell from tribes living in the woods and mountains. You can see how repetition is used by reading the full poem online here .

Art Matters , by Neil Gaiman

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do… Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art. Make it on the good days too.

Neil Gaiman’s memoir/self-help book/artistic manifesto champions the act of creating art even in the darkest of times. Writing “Make good art” over and over shows the reader that no matter what traumatic and potentially ridiculous challenges life throws at you, this is what truly matters. The repetitive question-and-answer format underlines the thematic idea that creation will always be the answer.

Fresh Water For Flowers , by Valérie Perrin

But he could be written to, his mail was being forwarded. What could I write to him? Julien, I’m crazy, I’m alone, I’m impossible, You believed me, and I did everything I could so you would. Julien, I was so happy in your car. Julien, I was so happy with you on my sofa. Julien, I was so happy with you in my bed. Julien, You are young. But I don’t think we care.

Valérie Perrin’s experimental novel uses repetition in creative ways to take us into the mind of the central character as she works to uncover her feelings. In this section, she repeats the name to create almost a pounding effect in her head; other re-used phrases, such as “I was so happy,” reveal the protagonist’s blooming new understanding.

Use repetition to create rhythm in your story

Language is pretty fascinating, and there’s a whole range of tools that you can use to enhance your story. With artful repetition you can persuade your reader of arguments or ideas, as well as create a feeling of coherence and unity from beginning to end.

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What is repetition? At its simplest, repetition is a word or phrase used multiple times in a text, for the purpose of emphasizing an emotion or idea. It might seem counterintuitive to repeat, repeat, repeat, but when wielded correctly, the repetition of words and phrases has powerful effects in literature.

You’re most likely to find examples of repetition in poetry, but both poetry and prose utilize the same devices, like epizeuxis, anadiplosis, and chiasmus. We’ll dive into those strange Greek words in a minute, but before dissecting the types of repetition, let’s properly define repetition in literature. What is repetition?

Repetition Definition: Contents

Repetition Definition

• Repetition in Poetry

11 Types of Repetition in Literature

• Anadiplosis
• Antanaclasis
• Antimetabole
• Antistrophe
• Epanalepsis

What is the Effect of Repetition?

How not to use repetition in your writing.

When a writer utilizes repetition, they’re putting multiple iterations of a word or phrase in close proximity to each other. In other words, a word or phrase is repeated to provide clarity and emphasis, highlighting deeper meanings in the text.

Repetition definition: an instance where a word or phrase is repeated to provide clarity and emphasis, highlighting deeper meanings in the text.

Now, repetition in literature can be both subtle and obvious, and writers can get very creative about what those repeating words signify. For example, take this excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ”:

In 11 words, “alone” is repeated 4 times, while “all” and “wide” are repeated twice each. Each word contributes its own importance to the poem. “All” emphasizes the intensity of the speaker’s aloneness, and while the word “alone” highlights the speaker’s solitude, “wide” highlights the vast amount of space between the speaker and anything else. The repetition here evokes the image of an insignificant dot floating in an endless nothingness—a loneliness without end.

What is Repetition in Poetry?

It’s easy to find examples of repetition in poetry and in prose, but it’s much easier to execute repetition in poetry. Why do poets use repetition? Poetry has greater freedom in syntax and structure, so poets have more tools at their disposal to repeat themselves stylishly and effectively.

Indeed, because of poetry’s brevity and concision, repetition is almost necessary to write a good poem . You’ll find in many great poems that a certain idea or image is repeated, with some modification, throughout the work.

Certain poetry forms also require repetition, typically in the form of a refrain. A refrain is a phrase or line that gets repeated in an intentional, specific way, with little modification. The villanelle , for example, has two refrains woven throughout the poem. Other forms, like the duplex or the sestina , don’t have refrains, but they do require words or lines to be repeated in a highly structured format.

Repetition in poetry: A refrain is a phrase or line that gets repeated in an intentional, specific way, with little modification.

Why is repetition in poetry so important? A great poem will look at a single idea from many different angles. Through that idea’s juxtaposition with different thoughts and images, the idea becomes multifaceted, in a way that a poem’s repetition and concision make possible. Additionally, the poem is often a site of obsession, and repetition in poetry enables the poet to explore that obsession in an intentional, artful way.

Now, let’s take a look at the types of repetition in literature—both prose and poetry—before looking at more repetition examples in each genre.

Repetition is as old as literature, though these devices were especially prominent in both Ancient Greece and Rome. These devices exist partially because of their emphatic value, and partially because literature was often retold orally, so repetition helped storytellers remember “what comes next” as they recited their work.

As such, the following repetition devices all have Greek names. For the modern English speaker, this makes remembering each device a bit confusing—how am I supposed to know my antistrophe from my antanaclasis?

As such, we’ve defined each device next to the word itself, making these types of repetition easier to navigate. In addition to using these devices in your writing, you can also impress your friends by telling them what they just said is an antimetabole.

We’ve provided some repetition examples in literature alongside each device below. Here are 11 types of repetition in poetry and prose.

1. Anadiplosis—Repetition in Successive Clauses

Anadiplosis is when a word or phrase is repeated in successive clauses. Usually, the phrase shows up at the end of one clause and the beginning of the next.

You’ll find anadiplosis often in classic literature, and this device is especially prevalent in the Bible. Take this excerpt from the Book of Genesis (1:1-2):

In this passage, “the earth” ends the first sentence and starts the second. This puts the earth at the center of the text, emphasizing its importance and outsized presence in Genesis.

Anadiplosis can also be used to offer a sense of placement. Take this example of repetition, from the poem “ The Isles of Greece ” by Lord Byron:

In this excerpt, the reader can view the arrangement of the landscape. We see Marathon literally situated between the mountains and the sea, because it’s situated that same way in the text, which also emphasizes Marathon’s importance to the poem itself.

2. Anaphora—Repetition at the Beginning of Lines or Clauses

For the most part, anaphora is an example of repetition in poetry. This device involves the repeated use of a word or phrase at the beginning of each line in a poem, or each sentence in prose.

Let’s look at repetition examples for each. In poetry, anaphora is present in the piece “ The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee ” by N. Scott Momaday. Read this poem at our article Literary Devices in Poetry .

In prose, consider this sentence from the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler:

The repeating phrase “I needed” highlights the narrator’s desperation, especially since each need is a luxury only afforded to the wealthy and comfortable. The following sentence, which describes the narrator’s belongings, offers insight into the narrator’s psyche and behavior—we know his needs and what he has to obtain those needs.

3. Antanaclasis—Successive Repetition of a Word, In Which Each Use Has a Different Meaning

One word can have many different meanings, especially in the English language. Did you know that the word “set” has 430 different usages described in the Oxford English Dictionary?

Antanaclasis harnesses this facet of language so that each repetition of words has a different meaning.

Take this example of repetition, from Robert Frost’s poem “ Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening .”

The repetition of the last line, and particularly the phrase “I sleep,” clues the reader towards two different meanings. The first “I sleep” is clearly referring to rest, while the second “I sleep” probably refers to the speaker’s death. This double meaning of “sleep” suggests the speaker has much more work to do before he can comfortably rest, both at night and at the end of his life.

4. Antimetabole—Phrases or Sentences Repeated in Reverse Grammatical Order

Antimetabole is when phrases or sentences are repeated in reverse order, with the intent of juxtaposing different meanings. In both clauses, the grammatical structure is exactly the same. This device is closely related to chiasmus, but with a slight difference that we explain later below.

This device is much easier to demonstrate than to define. See the below repetition examples, each of which uses inverted word order to emphasize a certain point:

This quote, spoken by Festes in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night , repeats “wit” and “fool” in inverse order. The effect is that Festes underlines the importance of wit, and that foolishness and wit are not mutually exclusive: a “fool” or clown can be witty, which is far better than actually being a foolish person.

Here’s another example of antimetabole, from Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God :

Hurston’s novel frequently dwells on the themes of gender and society, and this quote sums up the novel’s attitude nicely. At a time when women were viewed as subservient to their husbands, Hurston is saying that women are fully in control of their fate, feelings, and thoughts, defying the typical gender roles of that era. The antimetabole of “forget” and “remember” reinforces that sense of control.

5. Antistrophe—Successive Repetition at the Ends of Lines or Clauses

Antistrophe—also known as epistrophe or epiphora—is the successive repetition of a word or phrase at the end of lines or clauses. Like anaphora, the effect of antistrophe is the emphasis of a recurring idea.

You’ll find an example of antistrophe in the short poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks:

The word “We” starts each sentence, but ends each line—except the last line. This repetition emphasizes two things. First, it shows the reader the speaker’s lack of identity: he can only identify as a weak “we,” and that “we” centers itself around youthful rebellion.

Second, it highlights the poet’s attitude towards the boys. There is no “we” after the phrase “die soon,” which underscores the poem’s finality and the poet’s belief that the boys will ruin their own lives.

6. Chiasmus—Phrases or Sentences Repeated in Reverse Order

Chiasmus, like antimetabole, is the repetition of a phrase in reverse order. By inverting a phrase, the writer juxtaposes different or opposite meanings.

Unlike antimetabole, a chiasmus does not have to invert a phrase grammatically. The two clauses can have different lengths and structures. As such, antimetabole is often viewed as a stricter form of chiasmus.

Let’s look at an example of each, side-by-side. The following, from Shakespeare’s Macbeth , is an example of both chiasmus and antimetabole, because each inverted clause preserves the same grammatical structure:

Now, this next quote, from Aeschylus, is an example of chiasmus, but not of antimetabole, because each inverted clause has a different grammatical structure:

To summarize: a chiasmus is also an antimetabole, but not every antimetabole is a chiasmus.

7. Epanalepsis—Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and end of a clause or sentence

Epanalepsis refers to repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and end of a line, clause, or sentence. This is a feature of some other types of repetition—chiasmus and antimetabole, in particular, will often feature an epanalepsis.

This repetition device is just as useful for poets and storytellers as it is for rhetoricians. Here are a few examples:

“Beloved is mine; she is Beloved.” — Beloved by Toni Morrison

“Possessed by what we now no more possessed.” —” The Gift Outright ” by Robert Frost

“Nothing can be created out of nothing.” —Lucretius

“Music I heard with you was more than music. And bread I broke with you was more than bread.” —“ Bread and Music ” by Conrad Aiken

“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” —John F. Kennedy

The most obvious reason for using epanalepsis is emphasis on an important concept or keyword. That said, pay attention to how this repetition device adds a sense of rhythm and musicality to language. Something about the echoing of important words adds movement and tension to the sentence, making it moving and evocative.

8. Epimone—Repetition for the Purpose of Dwelling

Epimone, a device most often used in dialogue , occurs when the speaker repeats themselves for the purpose of dwelling on a point. This repetition doesn’t contribute anything new to the speaker’s argument, but it often shows us how the speaker truly feels.

Here’s an example from Romeo & Juliet :

In addition to several epizeuxis examples (defined below), this quote has several examples of epimone. The repeating “woeful,” “O day,” and “O woeful day” phrases don’t contribute anything new to what the nurse is saying, but it does underscore how terrible the day is for her.

Epimone is best used as an element in dialogue to humanize characters. In real life, people repeat themselves for emphasis, and using epimone reflects this human tendency.

9. Epizeuxis—Words Repeated in Quick Succession

Epizeuxis, also known as diacope, is the repetition of words in quick succession.

There are countless examples of epizeuxis in the poem “ The Bells ” by Edgar Allan Poe. Each stanza ends with some variation of the following:

Here, the immediate repetition of “bells” is an epizeuxis. Try to read this stanza as though each iteration of “bells” was a bell jingling: the stanza becomes vibrant, exciting, and perhaps even overwhelming, as it is both figuratively and literally consumed by the bells.

10. Polyptoton—The Inclusion of Multiple Words with the Same Root

Polyptoton is the use of two or more words that, though different, share the same root. The words “bare & barely” have the same root; so do the word pairs “battle & embattled” and “lunar & lunatic.”

Polyptoton was a common facet of Latin and Greek poetry, since one word has hundreds of forms in each language. However, modern literature has examples of polyptoton, too. Take this excerpt from T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Dry Salvages”:

There are four examples of polyptoton here: “wither & withering”, “pain & painless”, “drift & drifting”, and “prayer, prayable, & Prayer.”

What is the effect of repetition with polyptoton? By using different forms of the same word, the writer can suggest an evolving relationship between those words. The flowers, withered, are still withering; the sea, which drifts, brings drifting wreckage. Polyptoton adds dimension to the meanings of words, providing contrast and emphasis to what those words signify.

11. Symploce—Repetition at Both the Beginnings and Ends of Clauses

Symploce occurs when a writer uses both anaphora and antistrophe at the same time. By using symploce, the writer highlights nuances of meaning and the differences between the two repeating phrases.

Because symploce happens at both the beginning and end of a line or sentence, it most often occurs as repetition in poetry. Here’s an example of a love poem , “Sonnet 62” by Bartholomew Griffin, that has symploce in each line:

“Sonnet 62” uses an anaphora with “most true” and an antistrophe with “love.” Each line slightly alters the relationship between truth and love, presenting a series of juxtapositions and paradoxes that complicates the speaker’s relationship to Fidessa. By writing this sonnet as a perfect symploce, Griffin is able to capture that complexity and his evolving relationship to love itself.

Repetition in literature offers a variety of powerful rhetorical strategies . In the above repetition examples, we’ve seen this device do the following:

• Emphasize key themes and ideas
• Underscore the relationship between ideas
• Emulate sounds and experiences
• Invert ideas for emphasis
• Juxtapose ideas to challenge the reader
• Reveal or enhance the author’s writing style
• Play with multiple meanings and ambiguities
• Situate an important setting in the text, both figuratively and literally
• Suggest a character’s interiority

Repetition in literature can do all of the above, and much more. What makes repetition in poetry and prose so powerful is that it emphasizes other devices and ideas in the text.

Since the main effect of repetition is emphasis, writers should harness the repetition of words to underscore what their work is trying to accomplish. By skillfully repeating words and phrases, writers can clue the reader towards what they’re trying to say in their work, using the tools of rhetoric in artistic and literary ways.

Repetition is a powerful literary device that can highlight important ideas, flesh out those ideas, and make your writing more musical and interesting. When mishandled, it can also lessen the quality of your work.

How is that so? Repetition that isn’t done intentionally and artistically can end up being annoying or redundant. Typically, this happens when the writer is saying the exact same thing over and over. It can also happen when the writer doesn’t trust the reader, so they restate the same idea, trying to hammer in something that the reader already understands.

Much of this comes down to being confident in your work and being objective about your goals with your writing.

Here’s a quote from The Great Gatsby that uses repetition artfully:

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

The words “understood,” “understand,” and “understandingly” are repeated just the right number of times. They’re scattered throughout the text in an intentional way, and each time the word is used, it’s used with a slightly different meaning. Each repetition adds to the meaning the paragraph tries to convey, and it does so inside of the voice of Nick Carraway, the narrator. Here, repetition is intentional, thoughtful, and mindful of character.

Here’s an example of repetition gone wrong. I’ve amended the above passage to have needless repetition:

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare understanding smiles with a quality of eternal understanding reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible understanding prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it understood , that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

The additional uses of the word “understand” don’t contribute anything unique or essential. Moreover, they dampen the effects of the other words, and you start to get annoyed with the word every time it’s used. Don’t over repeat, and again, trust your audience.

Wield Repetition at Writers.com

Repetition is a powerful literary device , but if you have too many repeating words and phrases, your work can lose its impact. Writers.com can help! Become a part of our community: Take a look at our upcoming courses or join our Facebook group , and receive caring feedback on your work and use of repetition.

Sean Glatch

[…] Repetition Definition: Types of Repetition in Poetry and Prose […]

Fascinating piece.

For an understanding of ancient Greek words and how they are derived, check out Greek Alphabet: Unlock the Secrets by Julia DeVonne—an explanation of the symbolic meaning of Greek letters and how they are combined to form words. (Available on Amazon.com)

Wonderfully explained.

Amazing using this information in my next writing. Thank you

There seems to be a name for everything. Is there a definition for the rhyme in the final line below?

Who did this terrible thing? Who put a thumb in the pie? A voice in the corner Came from one Jack Horner T’was I. T’was I. T’was I

[…] and movement between lines, employ caesura to create pauses and emphasis, and experiment with repetition, parallelism, and other rhetorical devices to enhance the structure and impact of your […]

Such a useful and interesting reference – used in my A Level English Literature class. Thanks for posting.

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Repetition in essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. There are two types of repetition which you should try to avoid in essays:

• ideas or arguments
• important words or phrases

2. Repeating ideas or arguments suggests that you have not thought enough about the question and its implications. You are not offering enough substance in your response.

3. The solution to this problem is to generate more ideas at the planning stage. A well-constructed plan will help you to avoid duplicating your arguments – because you should be able to see the topic defined in your notes.

4. The repetition of words and phrases is a trickier issue. Many questions will obviously call for topics to be named in the course of your discussion. However, you should avoid the irritating effect caused by excessive repetition – especially of key terms or specialist vocabulary.

5. Avoid the excessive repetition of any important or key terms from the essay question in the body of your essay. Unless the nature of the topic makes it impossible to do so, try to find other way of expressing the central idea of the question. This will also demonstrate that you have understood it, and it will add variety to your expression.

6. Repeating the exact words of the question in the introduction to an essay is a very common weakness. Avoid this approach: it creates a very lame effect. A much better strategy is to show that you understand the question by ‘translating’ it into your own terms.

7. The same is sometimes true of conclusions . An exact repetition of the question (especially if you have also used it in the introduction) creates a weak and disappointing effect.

8. If you are tempted to repeat words or phrases, there are two general solutions to the problem:

• re-phrase the concept in your own words
• use a thesaurus – either a book, or the one in your word-processor

9. If you use a thesaurus, take care to choose a near-synonym from the same subject area and not another field of meaning altogether. For example, in an essay on educational policy where you wish to avoid repeating the term ‘education’, it would be no good choosing the terms ‘nurture’ or ‘care’ just because they are listed. These belong to the sphere of child-rearing. You might however choose ‘pedagogic’ or ‘academic’.

10. The converse of this strategy is to rephrase the concept. Demonstrate your understanding of the question by putting it into your own words. This not only avoids the boring effect of repetition, it also demonstrates to your tutor that you have grasped the subject concerned.

11. In an essay which deals predominantly with one thing or person, there is no need to keep repeating the name. For instance, instead of ‘Othello says … then Othello tries … and Othello’s speeches show …’ you can simply use ‘he’ or ‘his’ after the first mention of the name. So long as you do not introduce another name or topic, it should be clear to the reader that you are still referring to the same thing or person.

12. Alternatively, in such an essay, you might use terms such as ‘the hero … the protagonist … the Moor’. However, this approach should be handled with great care, as it can easily seem mannered and pretentious.

13. Keep in mind the general subject of your essay and the context in which its details are being discussed. You cannot simply pluck words from a dictionary or a thesaurus and use them as if they all had the same value.

14. Writers who lack experience often begin successive sentences with the same words instead of finding some form of substitute or variation. Rigorous editing and re-writing are answers to this problem. The following [weak] example is taken from what is otherwise a competent essay in literary studies.

To J C Ballard, the history that emerges from Empire of the Sun is not there merely to provide background or local colour. Empire of the Sun assumes that the reader has some knowledge of its historical content. The novel assumes that the reader has some knowledge ofAsiatic history …

16. This could have been improved by avoiding the second mention of the novel’s title and deleting the phrase which follows it, since it is repeated in the next sentence:

To J C Ballard, the history that emerges from Empire of the Sun is not there merely to provide background or local colour. The novel assumes that the reader has some knowledge of its context in Asiatic history …

© Roy Johnson 2003

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August 16, 2015 at 9:11 pm

These are some great tips! I want to add one more advice to make essays original. Just forgot about cliche. Most essays have overused phases like “It is interesting to note that…”, “In conclusion…”, “In sum…” or “In closing…”. These words only point out the obvious and make essays boring.

August 17, 2015 at 11:10 am

I think you mean AVOID cliche – and it’s true that any padding or unnecessary signposting should be removed when editing your work. But you DO need to indicate the STRUCTURE of your essay – to guide the reader’s understanding of your argument.

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Repetition Examples in Literature and Writing

• DESCRIPTION repetition in writing example
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Repetition is the act of repeating or restating something more than once. In writing, repetition can occur at many levels: with individual letters and sounds, single words, phrases, or even ideas. Repetition can be problematic in writing if it leads to dull work, but it can also be an effective poetic or rhetorical strategy to strengthen your message, as our examples of repetition in writing demonstrate.

Repetition of Sounds

Choosing words that repeat the same consonant or vowel sounds can help to make your writing more memorable. Many sound repetition techniques were first developed by scops , Old English poets, who memorized lengthy stories and poems to pass down orally in an age when most people were illiterate. Because repetition of sounds serves as a powerful mnemonic device, careful use will help your readers remember your point more easily.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, often at the beginning of a word:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Alliteration can also occur in the middle of the word, provided it's on a stressed or accented syllable in normal pronunciation:

Peter Piper's repasts were unpicked peas.

Check out a famous literary example from Maya Angelou’s Why the Caged Bird Sings :

Up the aisle, the moans and screams merged with the sickening smell of woolen black clothes worn in summer weather and green leaves wilting over yellow flowers.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds, which can occur at any point in the word:

His lips will slip the truth eventually.

Edgar Allen Poe includes assonance in his poem The Bells :

Hear the mellow wedding bells.

Consonance is a more general repetition of consonant sounds, where the sounds can occur at any point in the word:

Susie suddenly whistled to call the cats to supper.

George Wither used consonance effectively in his poem Shall I Wasting in Despair . Notice the repetition of d, f and r.

Great, or good, or kind, or fair, I will ne’er the more despair; If she love me, this believe, I will die ere she shall grieve;

Rhyme is a highly specialized repetition of sound in which the sound of the final accented syllable in a word or line, and everything that comes after it, is repeated in another word or group of words:

The crowd was wowed by the Flyin' Lion.

View a famous example of rhyme in Nature’s Way by Heidi Campbell. Notice how the last word in each line rhymes.

Upon a nice mid-spring day, Let’s take a look at Nature’s way. Breathe the scent of nice fresh air, Feel the breeze within your hair.

Repetition of Words

Repeating the same word several times in writing can serve to emphasize its importance. There are several rhetorical devices that writers use to make their point clearer and more memorable. These devices can be used in both poetry and prose.

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or short phrase at the beginning of several lines of sentences. Check out a few examples.

We resolve to be brave. We resolve to be good. We resolve to uphold the law according to our oath.

See anaphora used in action in Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities through the repetition of it was the :

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Antistasis is the repetition of a word or phrase in which the second meaning is the opposite - or at least very different - from the first. Check out a few different examples.

Benjamin Franklin’s use of antistasis:

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. - Benjamin Franklin

You can also see antistasis used in Shakespeare’s King Lear in the meaning of nothing.

Kent: This is nothing, Fool. Fool: Then tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer--you gave me nothing for't. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle? Lear: Why, no, boy. Nothing can be made out of nothing.

Conduplicatio

Conduplicatio is the repetition of a word in several different places within a paragraph, often to explain a concept's meaning or importance. View a few examples.

Robert F. Kennedy’s Statement of the Assassination of MLK:

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King ... but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

This can also be seen in John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost :

Then thou thy regal Sceptre shalt lay be, For regal Sceptre then no more shall need, God shall be All in All. But all ye Gods, Adore him, who to compass all this dies, Adore the Son, an honor him as mee.

In a diacope , the repeated words are separated by the addition of new words placed between them, which can either alter or enhance the meaning.

To find a famous example, look no further than William Shakespeare’s Hamlet .

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

Epanalepsis

Epanalepsis is the repetition of a word at the beginning and at the end of a line or sentence:

Hungry cats lash out not because they are mean, but because they are hungry.

Dive into this famous example of epanalepsis used by Sherman Alexie’s in Valediction in this excerpt.

But these dark times are just like those dark times. Yes, my sad acquaintance, each dark time is Indistinguishable from the other dark times.

Epimone is the repetition of a word, phrase, or idea to dwell on its larger significance. See this in action through a quote by Joan Didion.

We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.

For a famous literary example of epimone, check out Othello .

Put money in thy purse. Follow thou the wars, defeat thy favor with an usurped beard. I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be long that Desdemona should continue her love to the Moor—put money in thy purse—nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration—put but money in thy purse.

Epiphora , also known as epistrophe , is the repetition of a word or short phrase at the end of a series of sentences or clauses:

We live for freedom. We love our freedom. Eventually, we are even willing to die for our freedom.

Epiphora can be seen in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest through the repetition of ‘you’.

Hourly joys be still upon you! Juno sings her blessings on you … Scarcity and want shall shun you, Ceres’ blessing so is on you.

Epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or very short phrase one right after the other:

The day at the beach was fun, fun, fun.

Check out the repetition of ‘no beggar’ in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield .

Mr. Dick shook his head, as utterly renouncing the suggestion; and having replied a great many times, and with great confidence, 'No beggar, no beggar, no beggar, sir!’

Negative-Positive Restatement

A negative-positive restatement repeats an idea in a similar sentence structure, but changes it to make a contrast. These are often "not this, but that" statements.

Oscar Wilde used this device in The Picture of Dorian Gray .

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.

A polyptoton is the repetition of the same root word but with different endings or forms. You can see this through George W. Bush’s line.

But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best.

You can also see this in The Dry Salvages by T.S. Eliot through withering and withered and drift and drifting in the excerpt:

No end to the withering of withered flowers, To the movement of pain that is painless and motionless, To the drift of the sea and the drifting wreckage

Unnecessary Repetition

Sometimes repetition in writing is not used intentionally. It may be that the writer has a limited vocabulary or added phrases or clauses that repeat a word or idea without adding to the overall meaning or impact of the piece. In these cases, repetition should be avoided, as they can bog down your writing and make it dull or difficult for your reader to follow. For example:

The man spent a long time finding the right ingredients at the grocery store but was too tired to make dinner after getting home from the grocery store.

In this sentence, it is not necessary to mention the grocery store twice. Either one of the phrases can be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence.

When Eleanor learned that her grandmother's middle name was Eleanor, Eleanor realized why her mother named her Eleanor.

In this sentence, "Eleanor" is used too many times. This excess repetition can be addressed by substituting pronouns or using a short phrase to replace the name as needed.

Using Repetition Wisely

Careful writers use repetition to enhance their work without overusing words and phrases to the point of boring their readers. Careful writers also know that repeating a strong word is better than replacing it with a weak one that doesn't work as well.

If you're not sure if your writing is using repetition well, try reading it out loud. Your ear will catch too much repetition, and you can reword your work with pronouns , synonyms , or even a whole new sentence to smooth out the flow before you share it with others.

Charlotte Rains Dixon

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The Uses of Repetition in Writing…and in Life

In writing, repetition is often frowned upon because it is seen as a lack of cleverness, or perhaps laziness–couldn't you take the time to find a different word so you don't keep repeating the same one?  Please, please, please can't you vary the length and structure of your sentences so as to avoid the mind-numbing sing-song cadence that results?  And the same is true in life.  Repetition is considered dull.  Driving the same way to work every day, repeating the same routine day in, day out–bor-ing.

But lately I've been rethinking repetition in both arenas.

Why? For a couple reasons, the most important being my new object of adoration.  I'm in love with a man from India, who, unfortunately, has been dead since 1999.  His name is Eknath Easwaran , and he wrote a number of books on spirituality. Easwaran was knowledgeable, and wrote about, most of the world's great religious traditions but as far as I can tell he espoused none exclusively.  What he did recommend was a simple 7-step spiritual way of life which is explained in his book, Passage Meditation.

And here we come to the repetition.  Easwaran talks about two forms of repetition–passage meditation, which consists of meditating by repeating a spritual passage over and over again, and using a mantram, which you may know as a mantra.  The use of a mantram involves repeating a word or phrase over and over as you go about your daily life. 

I love the passage meditation that Easwaran describes.  To me it has a two-fold purpose.  It calms and focuses the mind, and at the same time, it drives the meaning and heart of the spiritual passage deep into your being.  But more than that, I love Easwaran and his clear style of writing.  He's written about a gazillion books, I'm happy to report, and I'm eager to read as many of them as I can get my hands on.

But we're not talking about my reading list.  We're talking about the uses of repetition.  As I've been reading Passage Meditation and pondering repetition, I've also been reading a manuscript from a client.  As I read, I noted a place where she had used repetition to good effect and wrote a comment telling her so.  And then I pondered the synchronicity of life–repetition cropping up all around me.  So the thought occured we could discuss when it is a good idea to use repetition in writing (seeing as how we've already talked about when to use it in life).  Here we go:

1.  Use repetition for rhythm.   This is perhaps the most common way repetition is used in writing.  You can repeat a word to establish a rhythm, or a sentence structure.  And, be aware, the opposite is also true–when a sentence does not have parallel structure, it is jarring to our sense of rhythm.  Repetition is crucial for rhythm, which is, after all, based on it (I'm thinking drumbeats here).

2. Use repetition for emphasis.   Most often, the experts will tell you to vary your word use.  This is one of the most common comments I make on manuscripts.   But sometimes you want to emphasize a point and repetition can be used to do so.

3.  Use repetition for comfort .  Comfort?  Well, yes.  Sometimes it just sounds nice to repeat words and the effect is comforting, like marshmallows melting in hot chocolate.

4. Use repetition for attention.   Once in awhile you'll want to jar the reader or surprise her, or wake her up. Repetition can be effective for this purpose.

5. Use repetition for effect.   Like yodeling in the middle of a song, or splashing black paint in the middle of the canvas, sometimes you need some bells and whistles to create a certain effect.  Try repeating words and see what that does.

So there you have it, my list of when to use repetition in writing.  I'm sure I've not mentioned all of them.  When do you use repetition, or do you avoid it?  How about repetition in meditation, or meditation in general?  Do you use it to enhance your writing?

Charlotte Rains Dixon mentors creative writers from passionate to published. Charlotte is a free-lance journalist, ghostwriter, and author. She is Director Emeritus and a current mentor at the Writer's Loft, a certificate-writing program at Middle Tennessee State University. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Spalding University and is the author of a dozen books, including The Complete Guide to Writing Successful Fundraising Letters, and Beautiful America’s Oregon Coast. Her fiction has appeared in The Trunk, Santa Fe Writer’s Project, Nameless Grace, and Somerset Studios and her articles have been published in Vogue Knitting, the Oregonian, and Pology, to name a few. Her novel, Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior, was published in 2013, and she is represented by Erin Niumata at Folio Literary. Learn about her annual writing workshops in Europe at letsgowrite.com, and visit her blog at www.charlotterainsdixon.com, where you can find all kinds of tips and techniques on writing and creativity.

8 thoughts on “ The Uses of Repetition in Writing…and in Life ”

Ledger D'Main

12/08/2010 1:58 pm

Why is it that the reader in #4 is a ‘she’? Isn’t that being gender bias? Isn’t it? Isn’t it? Isn’t it? ;-)

Charlotte Dixon

12/08/2010 2:11 pm

Not when you consider that for hundreds of years the pronoun “he” was used nearly exclusively.

Roy Burkhead

12/09/2010 8:08 am

I think that repetition can be effective, interesting, and original. Of course, there’s bad repetition, the sort that is done almost subliminally. That’s the ugly stuff for all the obvious reasons. But when done (keeping your five reasons in mind!) on purpose, with precise word choice, it shows that the writer is engaged, using a writing technique to achieve a particular goal. I am a fan of repetition, if done in the correct way for the right reasons. Great post!

12/09/2010 8:16 am

Thanks, Roy, I always love it when you drop in.

12/09/2010 8:48 am

I’ll be around more often, soon, once classes are…finally…over! :-)

12/09/2010 9:54 am

Roy, Congratulations on finishing up your teaching…at least for the moment. I look forward to having you around more!

Melissa Donovan

12/13/2010 4:29 pm

I think repetition is difficult to master. It can be used effectively, but doing so takes considerable skill. In the general sense, repetition weakens a piece. For example, you probably don’t want to use the word “small” in close proximity to describe two different things. Here’s an example:

John pulled up in a small car, and Kate loaded her small suitcase into the trunk.

I think repetition is extremely effective when used in the greater context. John pulls up in a small car and Kate puts her suitcase in the trunk. A few chapters later, Kate pulls up in a car of her own and John puts his suitcase in the trunk (or backseat). There are many possible variations but this repetition makes the action familiar. In this sense, repetition is a great tool for emphasizing the cyclic nature of our life experiences.

12/13/2010 8:53 pm

Great points, Melissa, thanks for chiming in. You give really good examples. —– PING: TITLE: online casino URL: http://www.thisisspartaaacasino.co.uk IP: 93.182.147.230 BLOG NAME: online casino DATE: 01/29/2013 04:38:20 PM The Uses of Repetition in Writing…and in Life – Charlotte Rains Dixon

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29 Must-Know Examples of Repetition in Literature

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Head of Content at Reedsy, Martin has spent over eight years helping writers turn their ambitions into reality. As a voice in the indie publishing space, he has written for a number of outlets and spoken at conferences, including the 2024 Writers Summit at the London Book Fair.

Editing 101 will always tell you the same thing: avoid repetition in your writing. But make no mistake, repetition isn’t a pariah in  the world of prose! In fact, when executed with finesse, it can make a piece of writing all the more compelling.

This post will take you through the basics of repetition. And because the best way to understand a literary device is to see it in skilled action, we’ll also cover 29 remarkable examples of repetition in literature. (To skip past the next section where we define repetition, you can jump straight to those examples !)

Repetition definition

Repetition is the act of repeating sounds, words, phrases, or full sentences. As a literary device ( find out more about those here ), it’s used to stress key points or to achieve a certain rhythm, tone, or style of prose — which is why you’ll often find it in poetry.

However, while it can highlight important details or enhance rhythm, repetition needs to be done with care. If you accidentally repeat words or re-state the same information for readers over and over (and over) again, it can become jarring. For instance, if you’ve already told readers that a character has an unusual beauty mark on their shoulder, mention it once and leave it at that. Hearing about the beauty mark  every time that character is in a scene is tiring. If it’s crucial to bring it up more than once, find new and interesting ways of bringing attention to it — instead of just stating its existence, maybe you can have another character comment on it.

If you’re going to repeat a word, phrase, or idea, it needs to have a purpose . Pinpoint exactly why it needs to be said again — or if there’s another way you present it that adds more to the narrative.

To figure out the right way to use this literary device, you first have to learn the different types of repetition.

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Types of repetition

Did you know that there are at least 15 main types of repetition? They fall into two categories: words and sounds. Let’s start with...

Repetition of Words

1. Anadiplosis The last word of a clause or sentence is repeated as the first word of the next one.

Example: "Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hatred; hatred leads to conflict; conflict leads to suffering." — Yoda, in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace .

2. Anaphora The word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences is repeated.

Example: “It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place.” — The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

3. Antistasis The repetition of words or phrases in different or contrary senses.

Example: “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”  — Benjamin Franklin

4. Conduplicatio The frequent repetition of a word or phrase within a paragraph, in order to expand upon its meaning.

Example: “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

5. Diacope The repetition of words separated be additional words, which alter their meaning.

Example: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” — Henry V by Shakespeare

6. Epanalepsis The word both at the beginning and at the end of the clause or sentence is repeated.

Example: “Next time there won't be a next time.” — Phil Leotardo, in The Sopranos

7. Epimone The word or phrase is repeated to place emphasis on its meaning.

Example: “Mr. Dick shook his head, as utterly renouncing the suggestion; and having replied a great many times, and with great confidence, ‘No beggar, no beggar, no beggar, Sir!’” — David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (Are you a Dickens fan? Read up on 15 of his classics novels in our guide to Dickens!)

8. Epiphora The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a series of clauses or sentences.

Example: If you did know to whom I gave the ring, If you did know for whom I gave the ring And would conceive for what I gave the ring And how unwillingly I left the ring, When naught would be accepted but the ring, You would abate the strength of your displeasure. — The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare

9. Epizeuxis The successive repetition of a word or phrase within one clause or sentence.

Example: “The horror, the horror.” — Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

10. Negative-Positive Restatement An idea or phrase is presented in negative terms, and then repeated in positive terms.

Example: “The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” — The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

11. Polyptoton The same root word is repeated in different forms.

Example: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” — Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss

12. Symploce The repetition of a word or phrase both at the end and at the beginning of a clause or sentence. (In other words, a combination of  anaphora and epiphora.)

Example: "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes…” — “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

Sound Repetition

Do you hear that? Is it bat, a rat, or a gnat? And speaking of sounds that repeat themselves, let’s take a look at...

13. Alliteration The successive repetition of consonant sounds in the stressed part of a word.

Example: “She sells seashells by the sea-shore.”

14. Assonance The vowel sounds are repeated.

Example: “"Hear the mellow wedding bells…” — “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe

15. Consonance The repetition of consonant sounds in successive or closely connected words. The difference between consonance and alliteration is that alliteration is at the beginning of the word (so “Peter Piper”), but consonance can be anywhere in the word.

Example: I'll swing by my ankles. She'll cling to your knees. As you hang by your nose, From a high-up trapeze. But just one thing, please, As we float through the breeze, Don't sneeze. — “The Acrobats” by Shel Silverstein

Okay, now that we’ve gotten seamlessly up to speed (pardon the alliteration), on the different types of repetition, let’s look at some exemplary examples from literature (pardon the polyptoton).

Repetition examples in literature

Let’s turn this section into a little quiz. Try to guess what kind of repetition each quote is using as you read through — the answers will be provided at the bottom!

Example #1:  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

Example #2:  The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

"They are not paid for thinking--they are not paid to fret about the world's concerns. They were not respectable people--they were not worthy people--they were not learned and wise and brilliant people--but in their breasts, all their stupid lives long, resteth a peace that passeth understanding!"

Example #3: Deep River by Shusaku Endo

“Hatred was spreading everywhere, blood was being spilled everywhere, wars were breaking out everywhere.”

Example #4:  A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Example #5:  Beloved by Toni Morrison

“Beloved is mine; she is Beloved.”

Example #6:  Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

“What I present here is what I remember of the letter, and what I remember of the letter I remember verbatim (including that awful French).”

Example #7:  Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

“And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony of grace she trailed her rags through dust and ashes…”

Answers:  a) Epimone; b) Symploce; c) Epistrophe; d) Anaphora; e) Epanalepsis; f) Anadiplosis; g) Assonance

Examples of repetition in poetry

Repetition is especially prevalent in poetry, as it can help achieve a certain resonance with readers . Again, read through the following examples of poetic repetition and guess what type each uses.

Example #1: "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”

Example #2: "Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight, Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Example #3: “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe

“It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.”

Example #4: "Song of Myself, 3" by Walt Whitman

“There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”

Example #5: "A Child is Born" by Stephen Vincent Benet

“Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost Minute by minute, day by dragging day, In all the thousand, small uncaring ways.”

Example #6: "The Gnome, The Gnat, & The Gnu" by Shel Silverstein

" I saw an ol' gnome Take a gknock at a gnat Who was gnibbling the gnose of his gnu. I said, "Gnasty gnome, Gnow, stop doing that."

Example #7: "Coda" by Dorothy Parker

“There’s little in taking or giving, There’s little in water or wine; This living, this living, this living Was never a project of mine.”

Answers : a) Epizeuxis; b) Assonance; c) Consonance; d) Epiphora; e) Diacope; f) Alliteration ; g) Epizeuxis

Now that you know how to make repetition your writing’s best friend, let’s give a shout-out to your best friend when it comes to removing unnecessary repetition : CTRL+F. We are all guilty of over-relying on specific words that crop up in our writing again and again. Get acquainted with your own habitual words, and then use CTRL+F to sweep your document for them. Find, remove, repeat ! 😊

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Literary Techniques: Repetition

In this post, we explain what repetition is, how to analyse it, and how to discuss it in your essays.

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Welcome to our glossary of Literary Techniques REPETITION  post. This post explores repetition in detail, one of the many techniques from our Literary Techniques Toolkit . Some common student questions about repetition are:

What is repetition?

• How do we analyse repetition?
• How do I discuss repetition in my response?

Here, we will define repetition, discuss the purpose of using repetition in texts, and take you through a step-by-step process – using examples – for writing about them in your responses.

Table of Contents

How does repetition work.

• How to analyse repetition, step-by-step
• Repetition examples

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Literary techniques: Repetition

Although repetition is important, it is a very easy technique to identify.

This means that you should always further analyse and think critically about the deeper meanings it can represent. Never state that repetition emphasises the subject it is talking about. That is not a strong enough analysis!

Repetition is when a word, phrase or statement is repeated several times to emphasise and develop a certain idea.

For example, “ That is a very, very, very big balloon!” 

There are many different types of repetition. For example:

• Alliteration : This is the repetition of a sound at the beginning of more than two stressed syllables. For example, “ she sold seashells… “
• Anaphora : When the beginning of a sentence, or phrase is repeated. For example, “w e brought the alcohol. We brought the diseases. “
• Anadiplosis : The repetition of the final word of a phrase, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next. For example, “ the poor have been wronged, and the wronged will seek vengeance. “
• Chiasmus : When the start of a clause is repeated at the end in an inverted order. For example, “ When the going gets tough the tough get going. “
• Epanalepsis : Repeating the end of a phrase, line, or clause with the word (or words) which occurred at the beginning of the same phrase, line, or clause. For example, “ The king is dead, long live the the king. “
• Epistrophe : When you end a series of clauses, lines, or phrases with the same word or phrase. This is the opposite of anaphora. For example, “ We are born alone, we live alone, and we die alone. “

Make sure you specify the particular type of repetition, if any, that is being used.

When a word, phrase or statement is repeated several times, we often find it hammered into our brains.

Knowing this, composers are able to emphasise and then explore further certain subjects by repeating specific words or phrases that relate to it. However, that is not all.

Repetition can create a rhythm or break it. This will ultimately affect the mood or atmosphere of the text. It is up to you to think critically about these changes and figure out its significance.

Most of the time, the subject highlighted holds a deeper meaning, like  symbolism.  The thing repeated often represents another idea or concept that can further support the text’s themes and messages. So, when we identify the subject and its symbolic meaning, we can link the two together to figure out the purpose of the repetition.

How do I analyse repetition?

Repetition is very easy to identify, but may be more difficult to analyse. Here are some methodical steps that will help you analyse and discuss it.

• Read the passage and identify repeated words or phrases
• Does it put emphasis on a subject or idea? Why?
• Does it change the mood? If so, what?
• Does it change the rhythm? How do audiences react/feel about this?
• Put the findings from above together. What does it ultimately represent?
• Think about your perspective on a subject, theme or idea. Has it changed?
• Discuss insights in a T.E.E.L structure.

Now that we have an overview of how to analyse repetition, let’s do it together using examples.

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It is very easy to notice repetition. It can include words, phrases, clauses or statements.

Step 1: identify any repeated words or phrases.

Let’s have a look at an extract from the Year 12 Common Module text:  The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew Hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, Passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the Same weapons, subject to the same diseases, Healed by the same means, warmed and Cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If You tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us Do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not Revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will Resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, What is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian Wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy You teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard But I will better the instruction.

Here, we see that Shylock’s monologue is about his mistreatment by the Venetians for being a Jew. He tells them that he is also a human with “hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections” and that he can feel pain and joy like they do.

However, it takes a dark turn when he begins to talk about revenge.

He questions the hypocrisy of the Christians; how the Jews are punished for hurting Christians but not the other way around. Shylock also confronts them about their undeserving noble attitudes.

Then, he vows to hurt them like they have hurt him.

So now that you have a better understanding of the plot, what repeated words or phrases do you notice in this extract?

“ Jew “, “the s ame “, “ If you… “, “ Christian ”

Step 2: Figure out the effect of the repetition

Now, we need to think about how the repeated words or phrases impact the audience by highlighting important aspects of the text.

These are the repeated words and phrases:

“I am a Jew . Hath not a Jew eyes. Hath not a Jew  hands organs, dimensions, sense, affections”

“Hurt with the same weapons… Healed by the same means… Cooled by the same winter and summer”

“ If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?”

“ If a Jew wrong a Christian , what is his humility? If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufference be by Christian example?

Let’s ask ourselves a few questions to figure out the effect of repetition.

1. Does it put emphasis on a subject or idea? Why?

Looking at the repetition of words and phrases in these lines, we can see a common theme running through this extract… PREJUDICE.

This extract talks about how both Christians and Jews are human and should be treated in the same way.

Shakespeare’s repetition of ‘ Jews ‘ and ‘ Christians ‘ highlights the two religions. The word ‘ same ‘ emphasises the commonality between the religions and the anaphora of ‘if you ‘ challenges the existing prejudice against the Jews.

2. Does it change the mood? If so, what?

What do you feel when you read this extract? Does repetition help build the atmosphere?

We can see that this monologue is quite dark and disturbing. And the repetition of words and phrases definitely add to this atmosphere.

Shakespeare chose these specific specific words and phrases like, “ Same weapons… same means… same winter and summer ” to create an ominous mood. We become anxious and almost terrified of Shylock’s promise of revenge.

3. Does it change the rhythm? How do audiences react/feel about this?

The repetition here creates a rhythmic beat that slowly builds up.

Because of this, the text becomes chant-like, and we find ourselves unable to stop reading the monologue. This also adds to the ominous and dark atmosphere of the monologue.

4. Put the findings from above together. What does it ultimately represent?

From this, we can see that Shakespeare has used repetition in Shylock’s monologue to confront his audience with the existing prejudice in society and its consequences – the persecuted seeks revenge.

So, the repetition here is emphasises the cycle of hatred and anger that results from the existing societal prejudice.

We see this through the ominous atmosphere created through the repetition of “ Christians “, “ Jews ” and “ Same weapons… same means… same winter and summer ” that builds an enchanting rhythm.

NOTE: it is not enough to just say that repetition emphasises Christians or Jews or the similarities between them.

Step 3: What is the significance of the text?

Now, we need to think about Shakespeare’s MESSAGE. This links to wider society and the human experience.

The theme explored in Shylock’s monologue is prejudice .

So, ask yourself, has Shakespeare has managed to confirm or change your perspective about this issue? And why?

We can see that Shakespeare is trying to warn his audiences of the negative consequences of prejudice within society. He horrifies us with the hatred and extreme desire for revenge that results from religious prejudices. Shakespeare tries to motivate us to try to remove prejudice society so that it can be more harmonious and equitable.

Step 4: Discuss insights in a T.E.E.L paragraph

Now, we have all the necessary ingredients to put together a  T.E.E.L paragraph.

T.E.E.L stands for:

• Technique : The technique used in the example
• Example : The example
• Effect : Your explanation of the effect of this technique and how it develops meaning
• Link : An explanation of how this example supports your argument.

You can find a more detailed explanation of using  T.E.E.L in our post on paragraph structure  (this post is part of our series on Essay Writing and shows you the methods Matrix English Students learn to write Band 6 essays in the Matrix Holiday and Term courses). Let’s use this  T.E.E.L to write about this example of repetition.

• The  technique being used is repetition.
• The example of “ Jew “,  “ Christian “, “ Same weapons… same means… same winter and summer “,   ‘If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?’
• The effect of this technique is that Shakespeare is representing the cycle of hatred and revenge that exists because of the religious prejudices that exist in society through the trance-like rhythm created by the repetition of words and phrases.
• The  link to our argument is that Shakespeare confronts his audience with the detriment of social prejudices as they harbour anger and hostility, thus, highlighting the need for the acceptance of differences within a society.

Let’s put this in a complete analysis of repetition.

Repetition example

As repetition is very easy to identify in texts, you need to bring your analysis to the next level. Now that we know how to analyse repetition step-by-step, let’s take another look at an example to make sure that you fully understand what repetition is and how to use it in your writing.

Let’s take a look at how to analyse repetition in a pair of texts for Year 12 Module A.

Repetition example 1: Sylvia Plath’s ‘Fever 103’

Here, Plath is on a journey to purify herself from her trauma and sins.

As you can see, she uses repetition quite frequently. However, we will only focus on one example.

“ The tongues of hell / are dull, dull as the triple / tongues of dull, fat Cerberus”

The repetition of ‘ dull ‘ ‘ tongue ‘  of fat Cerberus twists the myth of the frightening three-headed Hell-hound. He is known to be terrifyingly powerful, being the guard at the entrance to hell; preventing anyone from leaving.

However, by emphasising the dullness of his tongues, Plath decreases his power in an attempt to change our perception on the level of purity to enter hell.

By decreasing the level of purity to enter hell, she is then able to feel ‘purified’ and subsequently liberate herself from her domestic suppression, even with her numerous sins.

Now that we have analysed the evidence, let’s put it into a paragraph:

Now that you have a solid understanding of repetition and how to use it, you want to ensure you start practising identifying, analysing and writing about it yourself.

Written by Matrix English Team

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Key things to know about U.S. election polling in 2024

Confidence in U.S. public opinion polling was shaken by errors in 2016 and 2020. In both years’ general elections, many polls underestimated the strength of Republican candidates, including Donald Trump. These errors laid bare some real limitations of polling.

In the midterms that followed those elections, polling performed better . But many Americans remain skeptical that it can paint an accurate portrait of the public’s political preferences.

Restoring people’s confidence in polling is an important goal, because robust and independent public polling has a critical role to play in a democratic society. It gathers and publishes information about the well-being of the public and about citizens’ views on major issues. And it provides an important counterweight to people in power, or those seeking power, when they make claims about “what the people want.”

The challenges facing polling are undeniable. In addition to the longstanding issues of rising nonresponse and cost, summer 2024 brought extraordinary events that transformed the presidential race . The good news is that people with deep knowledge of polling are working hard to fix the problems exposed in 2016 and 2020, experimenting with more data sources and interview approaches than ever before. Still, polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot.

With that in mind, here are some key points to know about polling heading into this year’s presidential election.

Probability sampling (or “random sampling”). This refers to a polling method in which survey participants are recruited using random sampling from a database or list that includes nearly everyone in the population. The pollster selects the sample. The survey is not open for anyone who wants to sign up.

Online opt-in polling (or “nonprobability sampling”). These polls are recruited using a variety of methods that are sometimes referred to as “convenience sampling.” Respondents come from a variety of online sources such as ads on social media or search engines, websites offering rewards in exchange for survey participation, or self-enrollment. Unlike surveys with probability samples, people can volunteer to participate in opt-in surveys.

Nonresponse and nonresponse bias. Nonresponse is when someone sampled for a survey does not participate. Nonresponse bias occurs when the pattern of nonresponse leads to error in a poll estimate. For example, college graduates are more likely than those without a degree to participate in surveys, leading to the potential that the share of college graduates in the resulting sample will be too high.

Mode of interview. This refers to the format in which respondents are presented with and respond to survey questions. The most common modes are online, live telephone, text message and paper. Some polls use more than one mode.

Weighting. This is a statistical procedure pollsters perform to make their survey align with the broader population on key characteristics like age, race, etc. For example, if a survey has too many college graduates compared with their share in the population, people without a college degree are “weighted up” to match the proper share.

How are election polls being conducted?

Pollsters are making changes in response to the problems in previous elections. As a result, polling is different today than in 2016. Most U.S. polling organizations that conducted and publicly released national surveys in both 2016 and 2022 (61%) used methods in 2022 that differed from what they used in 2016 . And change has continued since 2022.

One change is that the number of active polling organizations has grown significantly, indicating that there are fewer barriers to entry into the polling field. The number of organizations that conduct national election polls more than doubled between 2000 and 2022.

This growth has been driven largely by pollsters using inexpensive opt-in sampling methods. But previous Pew Research Center analyses have demonstrated how surveys that use nonprobability sampling may have errors twice as large , on average, as those that use probability sampling.

The second change is that many of the more prominent polling organizations that use probability sampling – including Pew Research Center – have shifted from conducting polls primarily by telephone to using online methods, or some combination of online, mail and telephone. The result is that polling methodologies are far more diverse now than in the past.

(For more about how public opinion polling works, including a chapter on election polls, read our short online course on public opinion polling basics .)

All good polling relies on statistical adjustment called “weighting,” which makes sure that the survey sample aligns with the broader population on key characteristics. Historically, public opinion researchers have adjusted their data using a core set of demographic variables to correct imbalances between the survey sample and the population.

But there is a growing realization among survey researchers that weighting a poll on just a few variables like age, race and gender is insufficient for getting accurate results. Some groups of people – such as older adults and college graduates – are more likely to take surveys, which can lead to errors that are too sizable for a simple three- or four-variable adjustment to work well. Adjusting on more variables produces more accurate results, according to Center studies in 2016 and 2018 .

A number of pollsters have taken this lesson to heart. For example, recent high-quality polls by Gallup and The New York Times/Siena College adjusted on eight and 12 variables, respectively. Our own polls typically adjust on 12 variables . In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary to have that much intervention by the pollster. But the real world of survey research is not perfect.

Predicting who will vote is critical – and difficult. Preelection polls face one crucial challenge that routine opinion polls do not: determining who of the people surveyed will actually cast a ballot.

Roughly a third of eligible Americans do not vote in presidential elections , despite the enormous attention paid to these contests. Determining who will abstain is difficult because people can’t perfectly predict their future behavior – and because many people feel social pressure to say they’ll vote even if it’s unlikely.

No one knows the profile of voters ahead of Election Day. We can’t know for sure whether young people will turn out in greater numbers than usual, or whether key racial or ethnic groups will do so. This means pollsters are left to make educated guesses about turnout, often using a mix of historical data and current measures of voting enthusiasm. This is very different from routine opinion polls, which mostly do not ask about people’s future intentions.

When major news breaks, a poll’s timing can matter. Public opinion on most issues is remarkably stable, so you don’t necessarily need a recent poll about an issue to get a sense of what people think about it. But dramatic events can and do change public opinion , especially when people are first learning about a new topic. For example, polls this summer saw notable changes in voter attitudes following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. Polls taken immediately after a major event may pick up a shift in public opinion, but those shifts are sometimes short-lived. Polls fielded weeks or months later are what allow us to see whether an event has had a long-term impact on the public’s psyche.

How accurate are polls?

The answer to this question depends on what you want polls to do. Polls are used for all kinds of purposes in addition to showing who’s ahead and who’s behind in a campaign. Fair or not, however, the accuracy of election polling is usually judged by how closely the polls matched the outcome of the election.

By this standard, polling in 2016 and 2020 performed poorly. In both years, state polling was characterized by serious errors. National polling did reasonably well in 2016 but faltered in 2020.

In 2020, a post-election review of polling by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) found that “the 2020 polls featured polling error of an unusual magnitude: It was the highest in 40 years for the national popular vote and the highest in at least 20 years for state-level estimates of the vote in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial contests.”

How big were the errors? Polls conducted in the last two weeks before the election suggested that Biden’s margin over Trump was nearly twice as large as it ended up being in the final national vote tally.

Errors of this size make it difficult to be confident about who is leading if the election is closely contested, as many U.S. elections are .

Pollsters are rightly working to improve the accuracy of their polls. But even an error of 4 or 5 percentage points isn’t too concerning if the purpose of the poll is to describe whether the public has favorable or unfavorable opinions about candidates , or to show which issues matter to which voters. And on questions that gauge where people stand on issues, we usually want to know broadly where the public stands. We don’t necessarily need to know the precise share of Americans who say, for example, that climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Even judged by its performance in recent elections, polling can still provide a faithful picture of public sentiment on the important issues of the day.

The 2022 midterms saw generally accurate polling, despite a wave of partisan polls predicting a broad Republican victory. In fact, FiveThirtyEight found that “polls were more accurate in 2022 than in any cycle since at least 1998, with almost no bias toward either party.” Moreover, a handful of contrarian polls that predicted a 2022 “red wave” largely washed out when the votes were tallied. In sum, if we focus on polling in the most recent national election, there’s plenty of reason to be encouraged.

Compared with other elections in the past 20 years, polls have been less accurate when Donald Trump is on the ballot. Preelection surveys suffered from large errors – especially at the state level – in 2016 and 2020, when Trump was standing for election. But they performed reasonably well in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, when he was not.

During the 2016 campaign, observers speculated about the possibility that Trump supporters might be less willing to express their support to a pollster – a phenomenon sometimes described as the “shy Trump effect.” But a committee of polling experts evaluated five different tests of the “shy Trump” theory and turned up little to no evidence for each one . Later, Pew Research Center and, in a separate test, a researcher from Yale also found little to no evidence in support of the claim.

Instead, two other explanations are more likely. One is about the difficulty of estimating who will turn out to vote. Research has found that Trump is popular among people who tend to sit out midterms but turn out for him in presidential election years. Since pollsters often use past turnout to predict who will vote, it can be difficult to anticipate when irregular voters will actually show up.

The other explanation is that Republicans in the Trump era have become a little less likely than Democrats to participate in polls . Pollsters call this “partisan nonresponse bias.” Surprisingly, polls historically have not shown any particular pattern of favoring one side or the other. The errors that favored Democratic candidates in the past eight years may be a result of the growth of political polarization, along with declining trust among conservatives in news organizations and other institutions that conduct polls.

Whatever the cause, the fact that Trump is again the nominee of the Republican Party means that pollsters must be especially careful to make sure all segments of the population are properly represented in surveys.

The real margin of error is often about double the one reported. A typical election poll sample of about 1,000 people has a margin of sampling error that’s about plus or minus 3 percentage points. That number expresses the uncertainty that results from taking a sample of the population rather than interviewing everyone . Random samples are likely to differ a little from the population just by chance, in the same way that the quality of your hand in a card game varies from one deal to the next.

The problem is that sampling error is not the only kind of error that affects a poll. Those other kinds of error, in fact, can be as large or larger than sampling error. Consequently, the reported margin of error can lead people to think that polls are more accurate than they really are.

There are three other, equally important sources of error in polling: noncoverage error , where not all the target population has a chance of being sampled; nonresponse error, where certain groups of people may be less likely to participate; and measurement error, where people may not properly understand the questions or misreport their opinions. Not only does the margin of error fail to account for those other sources of potential error, putting a number only on sampling error implies to the public that other kinds of error do not exist.

Several recent studies show that the average total error in a poll estimate may be closer to twice as large as that implied by a typical margin of sampling error. This hidden error underscores the fact that polls may not be precise enough to call the winner in a close election.

Other important things to remember

Transparency in how a poll was conducted is associated with better accuracy . The polling industry has several platforms and initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in survey methodology. These include AAPOR’s transparency initiative and the Roper Center archive . Polling organizations that participate in these organizations have less error, on average, than those that don’t participate, an analysis by FiveThirtyEight found .

Participation in these transparency efforts does not guarantee that a poll is rigorous, but it is undoubtedly a positive signal. Transparency in polling means disclosing essential information, including the poll’s sponsor, the data collection firm, where and how participants were selected, modes of interview, field dates, sample size, question wording, and weighting procedures.

There is evidence that when the public is told that a candidate is extremely likely to win, some people may be less likely to vote . Following the 2016 election, many people wondered whether the pervasive forecasts that seemed to all but guarantee a Hillary Clinton victory – two modelers put her chances at 99% – led some would-be voters to conclude that the race was effectively over and that their vote would not make a difference. There is scientific research to back up that claim: A team of researchers found experimental evidence that when people have high confidence that one candidate will win, they are less likely to vote. This helps explain why some polling analysts say elections should be covered using traditional polling estimates and margins of error rather than speculative win probabilities (also known as “probabilistic forecasts”).

National polls tell us what the entire public thinks about the presidential candidates, but the outcome of the election is determined state by state in the Electoral College . The 2000 and 2016 presidential elections demonstrated a difficult truth: The candidate with the largest share of support among all voters in the United States sometimes loses the election. In those two elections, the national popular vote winners (Al Gore and Hillary Clinton) lost the election in the Electoral College (to George W. Bush and Donald Trump). In recent years, analysts have shown that Republican candidates do somewhat better in the Electoral College than in the popular vote because every state gets three electoral votes regardless of population – and many less-populated states are rural and more Republican.

For some, this raises the question: What is the use of national polls if they don’t tell us who is likely to win the presidency? In fact, national polls try to gauge the opinions of all Americans, regardless of whether they live in a battleground state like Pennsylvania, a reliably red state like Idaho or a reliably blue state like Rhode Island. In short, national polls tell us what the entire citizenry is thinking. Polls that focus only on the competitive states run the risk of giving too little attention to the needs and views of the vast majority of Americans who live in uncompetitive states – about 80%.

Fortunately, this is not how most pollsters view the world . As the noted political scientist Sidney Verba explained, “Surveys produce just what democracy is supposed to produce – equal representation of all citizens.”

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Courtney Kennedy is Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center .

How do people in the U.S. take Pew Research Center surveys, anyway?

How public polling has changed in the 21st century, what 2020’s election poll errors tell us about the accuracy of issue polling, a field guide to polling: election 2020 edition, methods 101: how is polling done around the world, most popular.

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Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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