polyptoton.

Rhetorical repetition of the same word in different grammatical forms, cases, or voices within a sentence.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• use polyptoton
• an instance of polyptoton
• rhetorical polyptoton

On the page

The line 'We loved what we could not love' uses polyptoton to connect two forms of the verb.

The speaker's polyptoton—'those who judge will be judged'—turns repetition into a warning.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Usually uncountable as a rhetorical technique. Countable singular polyptoton; plural polyptota for instances. Commonness: rare (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: MW directly read rhetorical repetition of same word in changed case, inflection or voice within a sentence; irregular plural polyptota. Original examples use loved/love and judge/be judged, not merely unrelated words sharing a root. Individually useful in research, criticism, methodology or conceptual analysis. Definitions and examples are original; no mood or intensity assigned to neutral analytical concepts. Commonness is an editorial estimate, not a frequency statistic. Writing functions: emphasis through changed grammatical forms, precise rhetorical analysis of repeated wording.