epitasis

/ɪˈpɪtəsɪs/

epitasis noun: the second part of a play, in which the action begins.

Noun

epitasis (countable and uncountable, plural epitases)

(ancient drama) The second part of a play, in which the action begins.
- How my uncle Toby and Corporal Trim managed this matter,—with the history of their campaigns, which were no way barren of events,—may make no uninteresting under-plot in the epitasis and working up of this drama.1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 88
- It doubles itself in the middle of his life, reflects itself in another, repeats itself, protasis, epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses
(rhetoric) The addition of a concluding sentence that merely emphasizes what has already been stated.
(obsolete) The period of violence in a fever or disease; paroxysm.

பிரதிமுகம்

plural	epitases

From Ancient Greek ἐπίτασις (epítasis, “stretching”), from ἐπιτείνω (epiteínō, “to stretch”), from ἐπί (epí) + τείνω (teínō, “stretch”).

What does epitasis mean?: Epitasis means the second part of a play, in which the action begins.
What is epitasis in Tamil?: Epitasis in Tamil is பிரதிமுகம். See Epitasis meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is epitasis?: Epitasis is a noun.
How do you pronounce epitasis?: Epitasis is pronounced /ɪˈpɪtəsɪs/.
What is the plural of epitasis?: The plural of epitasis is epitases.

Adapted from Wiktionary: epitasis (page history and authors); epitasis (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-epitasis.wav.

Cite this entry: “epitasis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/epitasis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.