Syllepsis
Pattern
V(A literal, B figurative) — one word, two senses simultaneously
Definition
A word used once but understood in two different senses, one typically literal and the other figurative.
Examples
Example 1
She lowered her standards and her neckline.
"Lowered" governs both a moral abstraction and a physical garment simultaneously
Example 2
He took his hat and his leave.
"Took" applies literally to the hat and idiomatically to departure, a single verb doing double duty
Example 3
She broke his car and his heart.
"Broke" operates physically on the car and emotionally on the heart
AI Detection Note
Very rare in AI text. Syllepsis requires a word to operate in two semantic registers simultaneously — a kind of deliberate ambiguity that LLMs, optimized for clarity, actively avoid.
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