Word.ws English Dictionary

hypallage

UK/hɪˈpælədʒi/

hypallage noun: the use of a grammatical modifier which syntactically modifies an item other than the one it belongs to semantically, generating a connection between the two.

Noun

hypallage (countable and uncountable, plural hypallages)

  1. (rhetoric, uncountable) The use of a grammatical modifier which syntactically modifies an item other than the one it belongs to semantically, generating a connection between the two.
  2. (countable, rhetoric) A phrase in which this occurs.

Synonyms of hypallage

  • transferred epithet

Forms of hypallage

pluralhypallages

Origin of hypallage

From Latin hypallagē, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὑπαλλαγή (hupallagḗ), from ὑπό (hupó, “hypo-”) + ἀλλάσσειν (allássein, “to exchange”).

Words that rhyme with hypallage

Questions about hypallage

What does hypallage mean?
Hypallage means the use of a grammatical modifier which syntactically modifies an item other than the one it belongs to semantically, generating a connection between the two.
What part of speech is hypallage?
Hypallage is a noun.
How do you pronounce hypallage?
Hypallage is pronounced /hɪˈpælədʒi/ (UK).
What is the plural of hypallage?
The plural of hypallage is hypallages.

Words near hypallage in the dictionary

  1. hypalgesic
  2. hypalgia
  3. hypalgias
  4. hypalgic
  5. hypallactic
  6. hypallage
  7. hypallages
  8. Hypalon
  9. hypandria
  10. hypandrial
  11. hypandrium

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hypallage (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.

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

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