parallelism

/ˌpɛrəˈlɛlˈɪzəm/

/ˈpɛrəlɛlɪzəm/

Other forms: parallelisms

You find parallelism between two things that are alike, like parallel lines. If your path in life is to save the world from an evil wizard, you can remark on the parallelism between your life and Harry Potter's.

In English grammar, parallelism is used in sentence construction to give matching structure. In the sentence, "I like to read, dancing, and fighting off Zombie attacks," the parts of the list are not parallel. You can revise the sentence for parallelism: "I like to read, to dance, and to fight off Zombie attacks." Of course, if Zombies are attacking, they probably don't care if the sentence parts are parallel or not.

Definitions of parallelism

1. noun

   similarity by virtue of corresponding
   synonyms: correspondence

   type of:

   similarity

   the quality of being similar
2. noun

   the repetition of similar or equivalent syntactical constructions, often for rhetorical effect
   type of:

   rhetorical device

   a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)