What is anaphora? Examples and meaning

Anaphora is the deliberate repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences or lines. It is one of the oldest rhetorical devices in English, used by everyone from the King James Bible to Martin Luther King Jr. The most famous example is "I have a dream...", repeated to open eight consecutive sentences of King's 1963 speech.

This guide explains what anaphora means, how to spot it, why writers use it, and how to write about it in GCSE English Language Paper 2 (the non-fiction reading and writing paper). It also covers the difference between anaphora as a rhetorical device and anaphora in grammar (where it has a completely different meaning).

Anaphora (pronounced an-AF-er-uh) comes from the Greek for carrying back or repeating. In rhetoric, it is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of two or more consecutive clauses or sentences. The word being repeated is called the anaphoric phrase.

The key word is start. If a phrase is repeated at the end of consecutive clauses, that is a different device called epistrophe. If a phrase appears at the start and the end of a single passage, that is symploce. Anaphora is specifically the front-of-clause repetition that gives a speech its drumbeat.

Examiners reward students who can quote a known example confidently. The five below are widely taught, easy to memorise, and span speech, scripture, poetry and modern advertising.

Anaphora does four things at once, which is why politicians and advertisers reach for it. First, it creates rhythm: The repeated phrase becomes a drumbeat that pulls the listener forward. Second, it builds emphasis: Each repetition strengthens the previous one. Third, it aids memory: Listeners and readers retain repeated phrases more easily.

The fourth, and most useful in essays, is that it constructs collective identity. "We shall fight" turns individual listeners into a unified we. "I have a dream" invites the audience to share the speaker's vision. Writing about that shift, from individual listener to collective audience, is a reliable way to score on AO2 (language analysis) at GCSE.

AQA Paper 2 Question 3 asks how the writer uses language to influence the reader. If a source text contains anaphora, naming the device is worth a mark, but the bigger marks come from analysing the effect. Use the PEEL or What-How-Why structure.

A model sentence: "The writer uses anaphora in the phrase "We must act" at the start of three consecutive sentences. This repetition builds urgency and forces the reader to feel implicated in the call to action, as if refusal is no longer an option." That single sentence covers the device, the quotation, and the effect on the reader.

Repetition is a family of devices. Anaphora is one member. Knowing the others lets you name the right device in Paper 2 instead of falling back on "the writer uses repetition", which examiner reports flag as too vague.

The four most useful to know at GCSE are anaphora, epistrophe, symploce and anadiplosis. The table below summarises where each one sits.

Examiner reports for AQA Paper 2 list the same handful of mistakes every year. Most of them are about precision, not knowledge, so they are easy to fix once you know what to avoid.