Word.ws English Dictionary

zeugma

/ˈzjuːɡ.mə/

zeugma noun: the act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.

zeugma: an old typewriter with a piece of paper on top of it
Photo by Maggie Isley on Unsplash

Noun

zeugma (countable and uncountable, plural zeugmata or zeugmas)

  1. (rhetoric) The act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.
  2. (rhetoric) Syllepsis.
    • The existence of zeugmas suggests the rule of transitivity. Zeugmas appear incorrect because they embody an allegedly univocal use of a term in a way which violated^([sic]) the rule of transitivity.July 1963, Fred Sommers, “Types and Ontology”, in The Philosophical Review, volume LXXII, Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in Philosophy, page 343
    • Thus I would describe 'He took his leave and the wrong umbrella' as zeugma, but not 'He took his hat and umbrella'. Zeugma is an important element in Chaucer's poetic technique, not because he uses it, but because he so regularly turns it down.2008, Amanda Holton, The Sources of Chaucer's Poetics, page 104

zeugma meaning in Indonesian

zeugma in Indonesian

using a word to apply to more than one noun
zeugma

Forms of zeugma

pluralzeugmata
pluralzeugmas
alternative formzeugmenon

Origin of zeugma

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ζεῦγμα (zeûgma, “yoking; a bond, a band”), from ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi, “to yoke; to join”), from ζεῦγος (zeûgos, “a yoke”).

Questions about zeugma

What does zeugma mean?
Zeugma means the act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.
What is zeugma in Indonesian?
Zeugma in Indonesian is zeugma. See Zeugma meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is zeugma?
Zeugma is a noun.
How do you pronounce zeugma?
Zeugma is pronounced /ˈzjuːɡ.mə/.
What is the plural of zeugma?
The plural of zeugma is zeugmata.

Words near zeugma in the dictionary

  1. zeuglodon
  2. zeuglodons
  3. zeuglodont
  4. zeuglodontoid
  5. zeuglodonts
  6. zeugma
  7. zeugmas
  8. zeugmata
  9. zeugmatic
  10. zeugmatical
  11. zeugmatically

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zeugma (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: En-us-zeugma.ogg.

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