Chiasmus
Chiasmus is a sentence pattern in which the second of two parallel phrases repeats the elements of the first in reverse order, giving an A-B, B-A shape.
She edited to live, and lived to edit.
The first half goes edit, live. The second goes live, edit. The same two ideas swap places, and the reversal feels like a discovery. That A-B, B-A shape is chiasmus (pronounced kye-AZ-mus), named after the Greek letter chi, written like an X, because the elements cross over in the middle.
Chiasmus examples
- Fair is foul, and foul is fair. The witches in Macbeth reverse two words and turn a moral order upside down in seven words.
- Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy's inaugural address swaps country and you.
- He worked by day and by night he drank. Here no word repeats. The shape does: action, time, then time, action.
Why they work: the reader's ear expects the second half to match the first. When it comes back reversed, the sentence feels complete and slightly surprising at once, which is why chiasmus is so quotable.
Chiasmus vs antimetabole
The two terms overlap, and people use them differently.
- Antimetabole repeats the same words in reverse order: fair is foul, foul is fair; eat to live, not live to eat.
- Chiasmus is the broader term for any reversed pattern. That includes antimetabole, and it also includes sentences where the ideas or grammar reverse but the words are new, like He worked by day and by night he drank.
So every antimetabole is a chiasmus, but not every chiasmus is an antimetabole. Some stricter writers keep "chiasmus" only for the second kind, where the words differ. If you want to be exact, call a same-word reversal antimetabole.
A warning built into the device
The Kennedy line contains no evidence at all, and it still sounds settled. That is the thing to be careful about. The symmetry gives a strong impression of having proved something, which is why chiasmus is the house style of the aphorism and of the confident-sounding falsehood. Reverse most sentences and you get nonsense that sounds wise.
Using chiasmus in fiction
- Dialogue for a character who has rehearsed. A politician, a preacher, a con artist. The polish tells the reader the line was prepared.
- The last sentence of a chapter. The closing reversal gives a sense of a circle completed.
- Once. Its whole force is in being the only sentence on the page shaped that way. Two in a scene and the character sounds like a greetings card.
Keep it apart from its neighbours. Antithesis sets two opposites side by side in matching order; chiasmus flips the order. Symploce repeats words at the start and end of each clause in the same order, with no reversal at all.
Frequently asked questions
What is the meaning of chiasmus?
Chiasmus is a figure of speech where the second half of a sentence mirrors the first in reverse order. If the first half goes A then B, the second goes B then A.
What is the difference between chiasmus and antimetabole?
Antimetabole reverses the same words, as in 'eat to live, not live to eat'. Chiasmus is the wider term for any reversed pattern, including one where the ideas or grammar swap places but the words are different. Most writers treat antimetabole as one kind of chiasmus.
How do you pronounce chiasmus?
It is pronounced kye-AZ-mus. The name comes from the Greek letter chi, which is written like an X, because the paired elements cross over.