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A figure of speech is a phrase or word having different meanings than its literal meanings. It conveys meaning by identifying or comparing one thing to another, which has connotation or meaning familiar to the audience. That is why it is helpful in creating vivid rhetorical effect.
Allegory
=
abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events
Alliteration
=
Repetition of the same initial sound
Anaphora
=
a technique where several phrases or verses begin with the same word or words
Antithesis
=
juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases
Apostrophe
=
breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality or nonexistant character
Assonance
=
when two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds
Caesura
=
a pause, usually in the middle of a line, and generally shown by a punctuation mark
Chiasmus
=
words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order
Hyperbole
=
exaggeration for emphasis or effect
Imagery
=
descriptive writing that appeals to the senses
Irony
=
using words where the meaning is the opposite of their usual meaning
Litotes
=
a positive statement is expressed
by negating its opposite
(sometimes with double negatives)
Metaphor
=
compares two unlike things or ideas
Metonymy
=
one word is replaced by another
with which it is closely associated
Onomatopoeia
=
a word that sounds like what it is describing
Oxymoron
=
a figure of speech in which
apparently contradictory terms
appear in conjunction
Paradox
=
a statement that appears to be
self-contradictory
Personification
=
giving human qualities to non-living things or ideas
Pun
=
humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings
Simile
=
comparison between two unlike things using the words "like" or "as"
Synecdoche
=
when a part represents the whole or the whole is represented by a part
