In rhetoric, antimetabole (/æntɪməˈtæbəliː/ AN-ti-mə-TAB-ə-lee) is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order; for example, "I know what I like, and I like what I know". It is related to, and sometimes considered a special case of, chiasmus.

An antimetabole can be predictive, because it is easy to reverse the terms. It may trigger deeper reflection than merely stating one half of the line.^[1]

Examples

• "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" ("One for all, all for one")
• "Eat to live, do not live to eat." —attributed to Socrates
• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." —John F. Kennedy, 1961 inaugural address
• "There is no 'way to peace'. Peace is the way." —Mahatma Gandhi
• "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." —Mark 2:27^[2]
• "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
• "With my mind on my money and my money on my mind." —Snoop Dogg in the song "Gin and Juice"
• "In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, Party always finds you!" —Yakov Smirnoff
• "The great object of [Hamlet's] life is defeated by continually resolving to do, yet doing nothing but resolve." —Samuel Taylor Coleridge on William Shakespeare's Hamlet
• "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us." —Malcolm X^[3]
• "He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for such a man." —Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass^[4]
• "Are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo? Or are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest?"—Suguru Geto, Jujutsu Kaisen
• "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" —William Shakespeare, Macbeth^[5]
• "And we'll lead, not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example." —Joe Biden, 2021 inaugural address^[6]
• "All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime" —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray^[7]
• "I'm hoping that somebody pray for me, I'm praying that somebody hope for me." —JID in the song "Enemy"
• "I pay my bills, and my bills are paid." —Amy Slaton-Halterman in an episode of 1000-lb Sisters

Etymology

It is derived from the Greek ἀντιμεταβολή (antimetabolḗ), from ἀντί (antí, 'against, opposite') and μεταβολή (metabolḗ, 'turning about, change').