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.”

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”)

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.”

From Literature

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.

From Literature