chiasm
/ˈkaɪ.æzəm/
chiasm is the alternative form of chiasma.
chiasm is the alternative form of chiasmus.
Meaning of chiasma
Noun
Meaning of chiasmus
Noun
chiasmus (countable and uncountable, plural chiasmi or chiasmuses)
- An inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases.
- The book of Habakkuk has been discovered to consist of a closely knit chiastic structure throughout. This is the first poem of such length to stand revealed as a literary unit of this kind, though chiasmus has already been discovered throughout many psalms[…]1934, H. H. Walker, N. W. Lund, “The Literary Structure of the Book of Habakkuk”, in Journal of Biblical Literature, 53 (4): 355
- Synonyms:
- chiasm
Forms of chiasm
| plural | chiasms |
|---|
Origin of chiasm
Latin; in sense 1, from chiasma, from Ancient Greek χίασμα (khiasma); in sense 2, from chiasmus, from Ancient Greek χιασμός (khiasmos "crossing, diagonal arrangement"), from χιάζειν (khiázein, “to mark with a chi”), from χ (kh, “chi”)
Words formed from chiasm
Questions about chiasm
- What is chiasm the alternative form of?
- Chiasm is the alternative form of chiasma.
- How do you pronounce chiasm?
- Chiasm is pronounced /ˈkaɪ.æzəm/.
Words near chiasm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chiasm (page history and authors); chiasma (page history and authors); chiasmus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “chiasm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chiasm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.