In rhetoric, antimetabole is a figure of speech where words are repeated in phrases that follow each other, but in swapped places. For example, "I know what I like, and I like what I know." This technique is connected to another figure of speech called chiasmus and is sometimes seen as a specific type of it.

Antimetabole can be used to show what might happen next because the words are easy to reverse. It may encourage people to think more deeply than just saying part of the sentence.

Etymology

The word comes from the Greek term ἀντιμεταβολή (antimetabolē), which is made up of two parts: ἀντί (antí), meaning "against" or "opposite," and μεταβολή (metabolē), meaning "turning about" or "change."