hendiadys
/hɛnˈdaɪ.ədɪs/
hendiadys noun: a figure of speech used for emphasis, where two words joined by and are used to express a single complex idea.
Noun
hendiadys (plural hendiadyses)
- A figure of speech used for emphasis, where two words joined by and are used to express a single complex idea.
- Some examples of hendiadys comprise two words in the bound state; others, two words in appositional hendiadys. It would seem that certain cases of appositional hendiadys are closely related to wordpairs (see WORD-PAIRS, BREAK-UP), though which way the development proceeded is far from certain.1984, Wilfred G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 327
- Each illustrates a different facet of verbal hendiadys in English.2002, Joan L. Bybee, Michael Noonan, Complex Sentences in Grammar and Discourse, page 152
Forms of hendiadys
| plural | hendiadyses |
|---|
Origin of hendiadys
From Medieval Latin, from Ancient Greek ἕν (hén), stem of εἷς (heîs, “one”) + διά (diá, “through”) + δύο (dúo, “two”), “one [idea] through two [words]”.
Words formed from hendiadys
Questions about hendiadys
- What does hendiadys mean?
- Hendiadys means a figure of speech used for emphasis, where two words joined by and are used to express a single complex idea.
- What part of speech is hendiadys?
- Hendiadys is a noun.
- How do you pronounce hendiadys?
- Hendiadys is pronounced /hɛnˈdaɪ.ədɪs/.
- What is the plural of hendiadys?
- The plural of hendiadys is hendiadyses.
Words near hendiadys in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hendiadys (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-hendiadys.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hendiadys.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hendiadys. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.