Tricolon

Isocolon is a figure of speech in which a sentence is composed of two or more parts (cola) perfectly equivalent in structure, length and rhythm: it is called bicolon, tricolon, or tetracolon depending on whether they are two, three, or four. A well-known example of tricolon is Julius Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came; I saw; I conquered").

The term is derived from the Greek ἴσος (ísos), "equal" and κῶλον (kôlon), "member, clause". The plural is '-cola' but in English may also be '-colons'.

An example of bicolon is the advertising slogan "buy one, get one" (you pay for one item but you get another free).

In Biblical poetry it is standard to see a pair of adjacent lines of poetry in which the second echoes the meaning of the first. This can be considered a bicolon. For example:

A tricolon that comprises parts in increasing size, magnitude or intensity is called a tricolon crescens, or an ascending tricolon. Tricolon can sometimes be a hendiatris.

Similarly, tricolon that comprises parts that decrease in size, magnitude, intensity, or word length is called a tricolon diminuens, or a descending tricolon.

Abraham Lincoln used tricola in many of his speeches. His Gettysburg Address has the following phrase: "We cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow..." Lincoln wrote in his second inaugural address, "with malice toward none, with charity toward all, with firmness in the right...", which became the most famous expression in the speech. Winston Churchill also used the device frequently, perhaps most famously in August 1940 when referring to the Battle of Britain with the line "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." In this instance, a frequent literary device of making the third colon stand apart in meaning from the other two for emphasis is employed (much/many/few).

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