chiasmus.

A pattern in which elements or ideas arranged in one order reappear in reverse order in a corresponding expression.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a chiastic structure
• rhetorical chiasmus

On the page

Chiasmus balanced the promise against the betrayal in the final sentence.

She kept the chiastic structure because it made the reversal audible.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Singular chiasmus; plural chiasmi or chiasmuses. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.