Epizeuxis
Pattern
X, X, X — back-to-back repetition, no gap
Definition
Immediate repetition of a word or phrase with no intervening words, for vehemence or emphasis.
Examples
Example 1
O horror, horror, horror!
Shakespeare, Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 3)
Triple immediate repetition conveys Macduff's shock at discovering Duncan's murder
Example 2
Location, location, location.
Real estate maxim
The immediate threefold repetition has become a cultural shorthand for emphasis
Example 3
Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Hammered repetition of "alone" mirrors the mariner's devastating isolation
AI Detection Note
AI avoids immediate word repetition because training penalizes it as disfluency. When AI does repeat words, it almost always adds intervening material. Genuine epizeuxis is a human authorship signal.
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