1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Zeugma

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Syllepsis.

n. A construction in which one word or phrase is understood to be related to two or more other words or phrases, while being grammatically consistent with only one of them, as with subject-verb agreement in She was upstairs, and her children downstairs.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. The act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.

n. Syllepsis.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A figure by which an adjective or verb, which agrees with a nearer word, is, by way of supplement, referred also to another more remote.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A figure in grammar in which two nouns are joined to a verb suitable to only one of them, but suggesting another verb suitable to the other noun; or in which an adjective is similarly used with two nouns.

n. [capitalized] [NL.] In entomology, a genus of hemipterous insects.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

n. use of a word to govern two or more words though appropriate to only one

Word Usage

"This is usually called a zeugma; it's a purely structural way of using prepositions in an odd way, for effect e.g., humor."

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

figure trope image figure of speech brachylogy

Hyponym

syllepsis

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

syllepsis