ISOCOLON Definition & Meaning

isocolon

[ ahy-suh-koh-luhn ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Rhetoric.

plural isocola

a figure of speech or sentence having a parallel structure formed by the use of two or more clauses, or cola, of similar length, as “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of isocolon¹

1550–60; < Greek ��ó��ō��ǲ�, from neuter of ��ó��ō��ǲ� “of equal members,” equivalent to iso- (meaning “equal”) + colon ¹ (in the sense “a rhythmic measure within a prosodic sequence”)

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

That is why the lengths of cola matter—isocolon being a balancing of clauses of the same length: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons”—and why a “rising tricolon,” strictly defined, is one in which the clauses increase not necessarily in importance but in length: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

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Reductio ad absurdum, by this token, would be classed as a figure of thought, whereas isocolon—a sequence of phrases the same length—or alliteration would be figures of speech.

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