Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Catachresis

Catachresis

Misuse or abuse of words; the use of the wrong word for the context, as atone for repent, ingenuous for ingenious, or a forced trope in which a word is used too far removed from its true meaning, as "loud aroma" or "velvet beautiful to the touch."

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  • Part of Speech: noun
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  • Category: Poetry
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Related terms

catachresis
Literature; General

Catachresis (from Greek κατάχρησις, "abuse") is "misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor" according to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary ...

catachresis
Literature; Poetry

Misuse or abuse of words; the use of the wrong word for the context, as atone for repent, ingenuous for ingenious, or a forced trope in which a word is used too far removed from ...

catachresis
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A figure by which one word is wrongly put for another, or by which a word is wrested from its true signification; as, "To take arms against a sea of troubles.

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Using the wrong word, e.g. saying disinterested (i.e. impartial) when you want to say uninterested (i.e. not interested).

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The distinctive verse form of old germanic poetry, including old english.

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A poetic form in which two characters chant alternate lines, couplets, or stanzas, in competition or debate with one another.

anapaest
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A metrical foot made up of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word 'interrupt'.

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Literature; Poetry

In the unusual view of literary history offered by the critic Harold Bloom, a poet's sense of the crushing weight of poetic tradition which he has to resist and challenge in order ...

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Literature; Poetry

The Greek word for 'headless', applied to a metrical verse line that lacks the first syllable expected according to regular metre.

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Literature; Poetry

A Greek verse form using a four-line stanza in which the first two lines have eleven syllables each, the third nine, and the fourth ten.

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