Paralipsis
//ˌpæ.ɹəˈlɪp.sɪs// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A figure of speech in which one pretends to ignore or omit something by actually mentioning it. countable, rhetoric, uncountable
"These negatives are a paraleipsis: what cannot be done to the soul can be done to the body."
- 2 suggesting by deliberately concise treatment that much of significance is omitted wordnet
Example
More examples"These negatives are a paraleipsis: what cannot be done to the soul can be done to the body."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek παράλειψις (paráleipsis, “omission”), from παραλείπω (paraleípō, “I pass over”), from παρά (pará, “by, near”) + λείπω (leípō, “I leave”).
Related phrases
More for "paralipsis"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.