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isocolon

[ ahy-suh-koh-luhn ]

noun

, Rhetoric.
, plural i·so·co·la [ahy, -s, uh, -koh-l, uh].
  1. a figure of speech or sentence having a parallel structure formed by the use of two or more clauses, or cola, of similar length, as “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”


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Word History and Origins

Origin of isocolon1

1550–60; < Greek isókōlon, from neuter of isókōlos “of equal members,” equivalent to iso- (meaning “equal”) + colon 1 (in the sense “a rhythmic measure within a prosodic sequence”)
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Example Sentences

That is why the lengths of cola matter—isocolon being a balancing of clauses of the same length: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons”—and why a “rising tricolon,” strictly defined, is one in which the clauses increase not necessarily in importance but in length: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

Reductio ad absurdum, by this token, would be classed as a figure of thought, whereas isocolon—a sequence of phrases the same length—or alliteration would be figures of speech.

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isoclinic lineisocracy