Asyndeton

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Asyndeton

Asyndeton: A rhetorical figure involving the deliberate omission of conjunctions to create a concise, terse, and often memorable statement.

EXAMPLES: Julius Caesar’s declaration “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”), following his defeat of Pharnaces at Zela in 47 B.C. A more familiar example of asyndeton is also an instance of amplification: “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman!