metalepsis.

1. A figure that refers to something through an intermediate figurative link or a more remote associated relation.

2. A disruption of narrative boundaries in which a narrator, character, or event crosses between levels normally kept separate.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• rhetorical metalepsis
• a metaleptic expression

On the page

The critic traced the rhetorical metalepsis through the image that joined the two otherwise distant ideas.

She removed the metaleptic expression when its intermediate link was unavailable to the reader.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Singular metalepsis; plural metalepses. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.