Word.ws English Dictionary

hyperbaton

/haɪˈpɜːbətɒn/

hyperbaton noun: an inversion of the usual or logical order of words or phrases, for emphasis or poetic effect.

hyperbaton: scrabble letters spelling dream, dream, and blg
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Noun

hyperbaton (plural hyperbatons or hyperbata)

  1. An inversion of the usual or logical order of words or phrases, for emphasis or poetic effect.
    • In real life we often see a man under the influence of rage, or fear, […] begin a sentence, and then swerve aside into some inconsequent parenthesis, and then again double back to his original statement […]Now the figure hyperbaton is the means which is employed by the best writers to imitate these...c. 100, Longinus, chapter XXII, in H. L. Havell, transl., On the Sublime, published 1890
  2. (rhetoric) Adding a word or thought to a sentence that is already semantically complete, thus drawing emphasis to the addition.

Synonyms of hyperbaton

Forms of hyperbaton

pluralhyperbatons
pluralhyperbata

Origin of hyperbaton

Borrowed from Latin hyperbaton, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὑπερβατόν (huperbatón, “overstepping”), from ὑπερβαίνω (huperbaínō), from ὑπέρ (hupér) + βαίνω (baínō, “walk”).

Words formed from hyperbaton

Questions about hyperbaton

What does hyperbaton mean?
Hyperbaton means an inversion of the usual or logical order of words or phrases, for emphasis or poetic effect.
What part of speech is hyperbaton?
Hyperbaton is a noun.
How do you pronounce hyperbaton?
Hyperbaton is pronounced /haɪˈpɜːbətɒn/.
What is the plural of hyperbaton?
The plural of hyperbaton is hyperbatons.

Words near hyperbaton in the dictionary

  1. hyperbass flute
  2. hyperbass flutes
  3. hyperbata
  4. hyperbatic
  5. hyperbatically
  6. hyperbaton
  7. hyperbatons
  8. hyperbeam
  9. hyperbeams
  10. hyperbeat
  11. hyperbeats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hyperbaton (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)-Vealhurl-hyperbaton.wav.

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