What epistrophe is

A term you'll meet in rhetoric and repetition.

Epistrophe is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses, sentences, or lines. It's a figure of emphasis through repetition — and the exact mirror image of anaphora, which repeats at the beginning.

The classic example

Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, for the people" repeats "the people" at the end of each phrase — that's epistrophe (combined here with a tricolon). The repeated final words hammer the key idea home and give the line a drumbeat of insistence.

What it does

By landing on the same word again and again at the close of each unit, epistrophe builds emphasis and emotional force. The repeated ending becomes the point the speaker won't let go of. It's common in oratory, sermons, and protest rhetoric, where the returning word can rouse and unify an audience.

Epistrophe vs. anaphora

This is the distinction to remember. Anaphora repeats at the beginning ("We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight..."); epistrophe repeats at the end. When a text repeats a phrase at both the start and the end of successive clauses, that combined figure is called symploce.

How to read it

Spot the repeated word at the ends of successive clauses, then ask why the writer wants that word ringing in your ear. Epistrophe almost always marks the idea a passage most wants to drive home — the note it keeps returning to as it closes.

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