merism

2024-05-19


A merism is a reference to something by its polar extremes or by a list of its parts. It comes from the Greek word μερισμός (merismós) and has examples in literature and rhetoric. See etymology, pronunciation, translations and anagrams of merism.

Merism is a rhetorical device in which a combination of two contrasting parts of the whole refer to the whole.

Merism (Latin: merismus, Greek: μερισμός, translit. merismós) is a rhetorical device (or figure of speech) in which a combination of two contrasting parts of the whole refer to the whole. For example, in order to say that someone "searched everywhere", one could use the merism "searched high and low".

This paper is a qualitative usage-based treatment of merism from a cognitive-linguistic perspective. Considered a minor or non-basic figure of speech, especially if compared to the master tropes, metaphor and metonymy, merism is approached here as a figure of speech whose complexity has been largely and unfairly underestimated.

Learn how the phrase "the tree of the knowing good and evil" in Genesis 2:9 uses a merism, a figure of speech that combines opposites to express totality. See how this relates to the essence of the sin and the essence of the gospel.

Last Modified Date: January 31, 2024. A merism is a figure of speech in which something is described by enumerating several of its different traits or components. Merisms often indicate completeness. They are also usually conventional phrases, reused in the same way by most English speakers.

Merism is a figure of speech that expresses a concept by mentioning its parts or extremes. Learn how writers use merism to enhance their language, create imagery, and convey completeness or intensity with examples from literature and everyday conversations.

In biology, a merism is a repetition of similar parts in the structure of an organism (Bateson 1894). Such features are called meristic characters, and the study of such characters is called meristics.

Merism in flowers is the result of a combination of a whorled phyllotaxis, the proportion of relative sizes of floral organs and flower meristem, and pressures from external organs. Different forms of merism have evolved in major clades and represent key-innovations in floral evolution.

A merism is a figure of speech in which a single word or concept is represented by two or more aspects of it — often contrasting aspects, thus conveying a broader view at the expense of possible misunderstanding if it is taken too literally. Examples of merisms in the Bible are:

Peta Situs