elegant variation

English

Etymology

Introduced by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler in The King's English (1906).

Noun

Examples

Tony Blair visited the town today. The Prime Minister saw the new theatre. The British leader left in the afternoon.

elegant variation (countable and uncountable, plural elegant variations)

  1. (journalism, literature) The use of synonyms to avoid repetition (regarded as a stylistic fault when done excessively).
    Synonym: inelegant variation
    • 1999, Peter M. Tiersma, Legal Language, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 131:
      A closely related rule for encoding legal texts is the same meaning, same form principle. We saw previously that this rule requires lawyers to avoid elegant variation. Instead, they should consistently use one word if they mean the same thing.

See also

Further reading

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