Chiasmus | Definition & Examples
Chiasmus is where the ideas or grammatical structures in the first part of a sentence are repeated in reverse order in the second part of the sentence using different words. The meaning of the first part is almost a mirror image of the meaning of the second part and creates an ABBA structure.
“She” (A) and “her” (A) have the same meaning, as does “my love” (B) and “my heart” (B).
Table of contents
Chiasmus definition
Chiasmus is a figure of speech where different words are used in the second half of a sentence to convey (or contrast) the same message in the first half in reverse. Chiasmus is a type of parallelism that structures sentences in a symmetrical X shape. It focuses on the mirrored arrangement of elements in the sentence.
The “chi” in “chiasmus” is the Greek word for “crossing” or “diagonal.” This X shape can also be thought of as an ABBA pattern where the BA part of the sentence is the inverted message of the AB part of the sentence. Chiasmus is the repetition of a message or idea and not necessarily the same words.
Two key characteristics of chiasmus are:
- An inverted structure. The idea(s) in the first half of the sentence must be a mirror image of the second half to create an ABBA pattern.
- Related concepts or ideas. In the ABBA pattern, the A parts must be similar in meaning and the B parts must be similar in meaning. But they don’t necessarily need to use the same words.
Chiasmus examples
Chiasmus is a literary device that requires wit and must often be carefully constructed, making it more common in poetry or speeches than everyday language.
“We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.” —John McCain
Chiasmus vs. antimetabole
Chiasmus and antimetabole are closely related, as they both repeat ideas or concepts in an ABBA pattern, but they are not the same. The key distinction is whether the same message or the same words are being repeated in the structure.
Chiasmus repeats ideas or concepts using different words in an ABBA pattern (e.g., “His time a moment, and a point his space”—Essay on Man by Alexander Pope).
Antimetabole repeats the same words in an ABBA pattern (e.g., “It’s not the years in your life but the life in your years”). In a sense, antimetabole is like a palindrome of words.
| Chiasmus that is not antimetabole | “By helping others, you help yourself; by helping yourself, you help others.” |
| Chiasmus that is antimetabole | “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” |
Cite this Scribbr article
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
Cove, R. (2025, January 05). Chiasmus | Definition & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved January 20, 2025, from https://www.scribbr.com/rhetoric/chiasmus/
