Entertainment / Literature / Periodic Sentence: A long sentence that is not grammatically complete (and hence not intelligible to the reader) until the reader reaches the final portion of the sentence. An example is this sentence by Bret Harte: And pulseless and cold, with a Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat. The most common type of periodic sentence involves a long phrase in which the verb falls at the very end of the sentence after the direct object, indirect object and other grammatical necessities. For example, 'For the queen, the lover, pleading always at the heart's door, patiently waits.' In a non-periodic sentence, we would normally write, 'Always pleading at the heart's door, the lover waits patiently for the queen.' The non-periodic sentence is clearer in English. It tends to follow the subject-verb-object pattern we are accustomed to. The periodic sentence is more exotic and arguably more poetic, but initially confusing.
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Periodic Noun Synonyms: periodical, intermittent, regular, recurrent, repetitive, iterative, cyclic(al), repeated, episodic, sporadic, occasional
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Sentence Adjective Synonyms: judgment, decision, ruling, verdict, decree, determination, punishment, rap
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Entertainment / Literature / Periodic Style: A style of writing in which the sentences tend to be periodic. See discussion under periodic sentence, above. Periodic style in English is usually considered indirect or artificially 'artsy' in compar MORE
Science / Chemistry / Periodic Table: An arrangement of the elements according to increasing atomic number that shows relationships between element properties. MORE