Saturday, 22 July 2017

Today's word is paraprosdokian

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to re-frame or re-interpret the first part.

A good example, where the word “right” changes meaning as the sentence is completed, is:  "War doesn’t determine who is right only who is left."


Another example - Silence is golden; duct tape is silver.

1 comment:

  1. It's a word i've heard before, but it doesn't come up in conversation enough for the meaning to stick. What i need to do is come up with some more examples and use them and the word in coversation.

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