Peripeties

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Unexpected turns of events or changes in fortunes, often in a narrative or dramatic context
2. Key moments of reversal or complication in a story's progression, adding suspense and intrigue
3. Significant or sudden shifts in circumstances, often leading to a climax or resolution in a plot

Etymology: "Peripeties" is the plural of "peripety," a word that English borrowed from Greek and that Aristotle gave a specific technical meaning. In his "Poetics," the term "peripeteia" describes the moment when a character's fortune turns to its opposite, usually through a discovery or a reversal of expectation. Tragedy, in Aristotle's account, depends on such turns. English speakers adopted the word for that dramatic sense, and "peripety" came to name any sudden change of circumstance in a story, even though its literal Greek sense was simply a turning around. The plural "peripeties" is the form you would use when discussing several such reversals in a single work.

Synonyms: twists, turns, changes, vicissitudes, unexpected developments