Explanation
Antanaclasis repeats the same word or sound form with a distinctly different meaning. Form initially creates continuity while the second use changes semantic ground. The device can sharpen an argument, make a slogan memorable, or ironically disrupt an apparent certainty. Genuine difference of meaning under perceptible formal identity is essential; emphatic repetition of one sense does not qualify. Homonymy and polysemy often provide the material, but the rhetorical figure arises only through their staged proximity. The conceptual movement holds onto one word, loosens its first meaning, and lets it return in a second occurrence with another function.
Movement of thought
1. A word first appears in a context that activates a particular meaning or reading. 2. The same word is repeated nearby and creates an expectation of semantic continuity. 3. The new context instead requires another meaning and retrospectively exposes the shift. 4. A counter-test examines mere emphasis, inflectional variation, and identical repetition without semantic change. 5. Both readings remain present together and produce a point, contrast, or argumentative pressure.
Scientific use case
Rhetoric, lexical semantics, and computational wordplay research can annotate identical forms with different contextual sense assignments. Reception studies test whether both readings are actually activated.
Example
“We need more sense of the sense of this rule,” the moderator says: the first “sense” means awareness, while the second concerns meaning and purpose.
Counterexample
“Very, very quiet” repeats one expression with the same meaning and is not antanaclasis. Two merely similar-sounding rather than formally identical words more likely instantiate paronomasia.
Distinction
Distinguish antanaclasis from polyptoton with different inflected forms, paronomasia with similar sound, and epizeuxis as immediate same-sense repetition. Antanaclasis requires formal identity with semantic change.
Effect on thought and perception
The figure creates surprising semantic change with minimal material. It increases memorability but may sound like a mere pun when the intended readings are unclear.
Resonance
The same word returns, but its inner space has changed. Its first meaning continues sounding while the second answers and displaces it.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Antanaklasis“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-119-001. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-119-001The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
The 1898 entry requires the same written word to recur with different meanings. Bullinger separates this from paronomasia, where similar sounds or spellings may connect different words. That boundary makes a historical analytical preference explicit: the figure depends on lexical recurrence, while its effect depends on a semantic change. The familiar attraction of such constructions lies in their apparent continuity; a listener encounters the same form again and must revise the interpretation. For the Atlas, this is a useful site for comparing verbal wit with argumentative equivocation. A deliberately signalled change of meaning need not mislead, while an unacknowledged shift may undermine an inference. Bullinger’s examples establish the rhetorical category in English reception, not the reliability of every anecdote repeated in the handbook.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
When a word recurs, check whether its sense remains constant. An overt switch can be playful; a concealed switch in an argument requires rechecking the inference. The figure alone establishes neither validity nor invalidity.