Tmesis
Quick answer: Tmesis splits a word in two and inserts another word inside it, as in abso-blooming-lutely. Learn how this cutting device works in poetry and speech.
Tmesis is the device of cutting a word or fixed phrase in two and inserting another word into the gap: 'abso-blooming-lutely', 'un-flipping-believable', 'a whole nother story'. The Greek word simply means 'a cutting'. It is one of the few rhetorical figures that operates inside a single word, surgery at the smallest scale language allows, and it almost always carries a jolt of emphasis, comedy, or exasperation.
Everyday speech uses tmesis far more than the page does, especially in expletive infixation, where a strong word is jammed into an adjective for force. That colloquial energy is exactly why poets borrow it: a split word imports the sound of real, heated, informal speech into a poem in one move.
How It Works
The cut cannot fall anywhere. Linguists studying English infixation found the inserted word must land just before a stressed syllable, which is why 'abso-blooming-lutely' works and 'ab-blooming-solutely' sounds wrong to every native ear. That secret metrical rule makes tmesis a rhythm device as much as a lexical one: speakers obey stress patterns they have never been taught.
Beyond swearing, tmesis can split compounds and phrases: 'where I go soever' hides inside the older 'whatsoever' pattern, and an invented poetic example might run, 'This ever-so-slightly, this ever-and-always-so, broken chair', where the stutter of insertion enacts hesitation. The gap performs the meaning.
Where You Will See It
Classical poets split words across their grammar freely; English examples cluster in drama and comic verse. Shakespeare uses phrase-splitting tmesis in lines like 'how heinous e'er it be' and 'that man, how dearly ever parted'. The music-hall tradition gave English its most famous case, 'abso-blooming-lutely', preserved in the songs of My Fair Lady. Gerard Manley Hopkins produced the strangest literary instance, writing 'wind-lilylocks-laced' in his poem about Harry Ploughman. Australian English contributed the much-quoted place-name split 'kanga-bloody-roo', and comic poets from Ogden Nash onward have treated word-cutting as fair sport.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Tmesis is a strong spice. It suits dramatic monologue, comic verse, rant poems, and any speaker whose composure is cracking, because a split word sounds like feeling bursting through diction. Respect the stress rule; read the split aloud and let your ear place the cut. You can also use it structurally, letting a line break perform the incision, splitting a compound across two lines so the reader falls through the gap. Once per poem is plenty; the figure is memorable enough that judges will remember it, for better or worse, under the language criterion.
What poets can take from this
- Place the inserted word just before a stressed syllable; trust your ear.
- Reserve tmesis for voices under pressure, comic or furious.
- Try a line break as the knife, splitting a compound across two lines.
- Use it once; repeated cuts turn a jolt into a gimmick.
- Match the infixed word to the poem's register, from 'blooming' to worse.
Try it yourself
Write a dramatic monologue for a speaker at the end of their patience, a parent at bedtime, a commuter on a stalled train. Include exactly one act of tmesis at the moment their composure finally splits, and let the rest of the diction stay controlled.
Questions
What is the difference between tmesis and infixation?
Infixation is the linguistic term for inserting an element inside a word, and expletive infixation is its most famous English form. Tmesis is the older rhetorical name covering the same move plus the splitting of compounds and set phrases.
Is tmesis too informal for serious poetry?
No, but it imports informality deliberately. Hopkins used it in devotional poetry and Shakespeare in tragedy. The device signals speech under pressure, so it works wherever a poem wants the sound of composure cracking.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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