Traductio repeats a key word while changing its role, implication, or context. A poet might write, “Love taught me love’s impatience,” using the same word first as an agent and then as a quality. The repeated term becomes a hinge around which the line’s thought turns. This device can produce wit, intensify a theme, or reveal ambiguity in a word that carries several meanings. It often makes poetic language feel self-aware, as if the poem is testing the limits of its own vocabulary.

Traductio repeats the same word while shifting its grammatical role or shade of meaning, inviting readers to notice both continuity and change. A poet might write, “Love loves what love cannot keep,” using noun and verb forms. It is related to polyptoton and antanaclasis, but traductio emphasizes meaningful recurrence across a passage.