The reversal of the normal order of words

• Inversion, such as "Came the dawn"

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"inversion of usual word order," 1570s, from Greek anastrophe "a turning back, a turning upside down," from anastrephein "to turn up or back, to turn upside down," from ana "back" (see ana- ) + strephein "to turn" (see strophe ).

The Collaborative International Dictionary Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Anastrophe \A*nas"tro*phe\, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to turn up or back; ? + ? to turn.] (Rhet. & Gram.) An inversion of the natural order of words; as, echoed the hills, for, the hills echoed.

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
Anastrophe (from the , anastrophē , "a turning back or about") is a figure of speech in which the syntactically correct order of subject, verb and object is changed. For example, the usual English order of subject , object and verb might be changed to object-subject-verb, ...

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. the reversal of the normal order of words [syn: inversion ]

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. (context rhetoric English) Unusual word order, often involving an inversion of the usual pattern of the sentence.