Homeoteleutons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A literary device where similar endings in words create a pleasing effect
2. the technique emphasizes rhythm and sound through repetition in close proximity
3. often used in poetry and prose to enhance aesthetic appeal

Etymology: "Homeoteleutons" is the plural of "homeoteleuton", a term for words or phrases that end with the same sound or sequence of sounds. The singular is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek "homoioteleuton", literally "like ending", built from "homoios" meaning "like" or "similar" and "teleutē" meaning "ending" or "completion". Rhetoricians and grammarians in classical Greece used the idea to describe repeated endings in prose and verse, and the term passed into English as a technical word for the same device. The plural follows the usual English pattern for a borrowed Greek noun ending in "-on", which in its Greek form was a neuter singular. English writers have typically added an "s" to form the plural, as in "homeoteleutons" here.