Chiasmus
- “what is chiasmus”
- “chiasmus vs antimetabole”
- “chiasmus examples”
- “ask not what your country can do for you”
:: COMPARE ::
ChiasmusvsAntimetabole
The short answer
Antimetabole repeats the exact words in reverse; chiasmus reverses the structure and may use entirely different words. Handbooks differ on whether antimetabole is a kind of chiasmus or a separate figure — and since it supplies nearly every example people quote, the narrow sense has swallowed the broad one.
Side by side
| Aspect | Chiasmus | Antimetabole |
|---|---|---|
| Repeats words | Not required | Required |
| Reverses structure | Yes | Yes |
| Which is broader | This one | A subtype |
| Most famous examples | — | These |
Which one you meant
Readers who land here meaning Chiasmus rather than Antimetabole are usually searching for phrases like “what is chiasmus”, “chiasmus vs antimetabole”, “chiasmus examples”.
Where the confusion comes from
“Chiasmus means repeating the same words in reverse order.”
That is ANTIMETABOLE, a subtype. Chiasmus is the broader structural inversion and does not require the same words at all — Samuel Johnson's 'by day the frolic, and the dance by night' (The Vanity of Human Wishes, 1749) is chiasmus with no repeated vocabulary. Most famous 'chiasmus' examples are in fact antimetabole.
Read either one in full