Do you know what a zeugma is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on zeugma, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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December 27, 2021
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What is a zeugma?
According to Literary Devices, zeugma is a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun. This blends ideas logically and grammatically and comes from the Greek word meaning yoking or bonding. This is similar to syllepsis, which also uses a single verb for more than one part in a sentence, but that single verb applies grammatically and logically to only one.
Many different languages also contain words that mean zeugma. You may notice that some of these translations of zeugma look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of zeugma is provided by Word Sense.
- Catalan: zeugma (masc.)
- Czech: zeugma (neut.)
- Esperanto: zeŭgmo
- Japanese: 軛語法 (くびきごほう, kubiki gohō)
- Greek: ζεύγμα (neut.)
- Finnish: zeugma, iestys
- Spanish: zeugma (masc.)
- Russian: зе́вгма (fem.)
- German: Zeugma (neut.)
- French: zeugma (masc.)
- Latin: zeugma (fem.)
- Swedish: zeugma
- Ancient Greek: ζεῦγμα (neut.)
- Portuguese: zeugma (masc.)
- Cyrillic: зеугма (fem.)
What are examples of zeugma?
Zeugmas can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of zeugmas that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these zeugma examples from Your Dictionary and Literary Devices and see how many you know!
- The Rape of the Lock, Canto III (By Alexander Pope): “Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey, Dost sometimes Counsel take – and sometimes Tea.”
- In quick succession, Susan lost her job, her house and her mind!
- Of Studies (By Francis Bacon): “Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”
- Oliver Twist (By Charles Dickens): “[H]e was alternately cudgelling his brains and his donkey when, passing the workhouse, his eyes encountered the bill on the gate.”
- Julius Caesar (By William Shakespeare): “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
- The Rape of the Lock (By Alexander Pope): “Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law, Or some frail China-jar receive a flaw, Or stain her honour, or her new brocade.”
- He opened his mind and his wallet every time he went out with her.
- She kicked that bad habit and soon after the bucket.
- On our first date, I held my breath and the car door for her.
- Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.”
- The Pickwick Papers (By Charles Dickens): “Miss Bolo […] went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan-chair.”
- Have Some Madeira, M’Dear (By Flanders and Swann): “She lowered her standards by raising her glass,
- The student observed the specimen with a microscope and some disgust.
- The Things They Carried (By Tim O’Brien): “But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations and water and toilet paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus an unweighed fear.”
- She had already exhausted her kids and her patience by the end of the first day of summer vacation.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (By Mark Twain): “[They] covered themselves with dust and glory.”
- When he came to pick me up, I opened my door and my heart to him.
- The disgruntled worker quickly took his belongings and his leave.
- The Hundred Secret Senses (By Amy Tan): “We were partners, not soul mates, two separate people who happened to be sharing a menu and a life.”
- All over Ireland, the farmers grew potatoes, barley and bored.
- Essay on Man (By Alexander Pope): “Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, And now a bubble burst, and now a world.”
- The storm sank my boat and my dreams.
- He fished for trout and compliments.
- The Holy Bible, Exodus 20:18 (By the Prophet Moses): “And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.”
- She firmly held her tongue and her hand.
- Alanis Morissette, “Head Over Feet”: “You held your breath and the door for me.”
- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: “He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.”
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: “You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit.”
- Cicero, Pro Cluentio, VI.15: “Vicit pudorem libido timorem audacia rationem amentia. (Lust conquered shame; audacity, fear; madness, reason.)”
- Ulysses (by Alfred Tennyson): “He works his work, I mine.”
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different grammatical and literary techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading poetry or prose. Knowing these devices is very important because they are always used in writing or speech for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers and listeners understand the speaker or author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of literary devices from Reedsy and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- Satire
- Zoomorphism
- Symbolism
- Anaphora
- Metonymy
- Onomatopoeia
- Parallelism
- Anastrophe
- Point of view
- Aphorism
- Anachronism
- Allegory
- Tragicomedy
- Flashback
- Chiasmus
- Personification
- Frame story
- Tone
- Alliteration
- Tautology
- Malapropism
- Hyperbole
- Colloquialism
- In Medias Res
- Allusion
- Litotes
- Foreshadowing
- Soliloquy
- Archetype
- Dramatic irony
- Exposition
- Paradox
- Euphemism
- Anthropomorphism
- Juxtaposition
- Tmesis
- Motif
- Hypophora
- Polysyndeton
- Irony
- Repetition
- Metaphor
- Simile
- Cumulative sentence
- Isocolon
- Imagery
- Synecdoche
Overall, the word zeugma is a literary device in which a single word applies to more than one noun.
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