metălepsis, is, f., = μετάληψις, in rhetoric, the use of one word for another which it suggests by association, as, the cause for the effect, or the reverse; especially when a second substitution is made, as when aristae is said for messis, and then for aestas or annus: est haec in metalepsi natura, ut inter id, quod transfertur, sit medius quidam gradus, nihil ipse significans, sed praebens transitum, Quint. 8, 6, 38: in metalepsin cadit, id. 6, 3, 52.