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A brand designer is utilizing this sound device when they name a company something memorable like "Dunkin' Donuts," "PayPal," or "Best Buy."
Alliteration
When someone drops a glass plate, shattering it across the kitchen floor, and their sibling yells, "Wow, brilliant job, Einstein!", they are using this biting, mocking device.
The television show South Park and the website The Onion use this comedic genre to mock, exaggerate, and expose the foolishness of modern politics and pop culture.
Satire
In The Dark Knight, Batman faces this specific conflict when the Joker forces him to choose between saving Harvey Dent or saving Rachel Dawes, knowing he cannot rescue both.
Dilemma
While the plot of Romeo and Juliet is about two teenagers from rival families falling in love, "the destructive power of hatred" is the play's underlying, universal one of these.
Theme
In many cultures, a white dove represents peace, a red rose represents romance, and a skull represents danger, serving as everyday examples of this device.
Symbolism
Although "scrawny" and "slender" both mean thin, an author uses "slender" because it carries a much more positive and graceful one of these.
Connotation
A description of a beautiful, pristine garden as "a regular Eden before the tourists arrived" relies on this device by referencing the Book of Genesis.
Allusion
"Just as a sword is the weapon of a warrior, a pen is the weapon of a writer" is an example of this logical comparison used to clarify an idea.
Analogy
Raymond Chandler used this explicit comparison when he wrote the detective line, "She looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake."
Simile
Shakespeare committed this historical error in Julius Caesar when he wrote about a clock chiming in ancient Rome, centuries before striking clocks were invented.
Anachronism
The repeating, long "i" sounds in the classic poetic phrase, "The silent night brightens with the light of the moon," is an example of this internal rhyme device.
Assonance
An author who fills a eulogy with words like "honorable," "legacy," "sacred," and "beloved" is establishing a deeply respectful and solemn one of these toward the deceased.
Tone
"I wore my lucky socks today and then I passed my math test, so the socks must have caused my high grade" is an example of a "false cause" type of this.
Fallacy
When a movie character sighs and says, "What a beautiful day, nothing could possibly go wrong," right before a massive storm hits, the scriptwriter is using this device.
Foreshadowing
When a hungry person sits down at a restaurant and exclaims, "I am so starving I could eat a horse!", they are employing this dramatic exaggeration.
Hyperbole
Saying to someone, "quit pulling my leg" is an example of this type of culturally specific, non-literal expression.
Idiom
It is this specific situational device when a marriage counselor files for a messy, public divorce.
Irony
A filmmaker uses this technique when they cut directly from a shot of a wealthy family enjoying a lavish feast to a shot of a starving child on the street.
Juxtaposition
The famous quote, "Time is a thief," directly equates the passing of hours to a criminal without using the words "like" or "as," making it this figure of speech.
Metaphor
An author who writes about "sunlight dancing through golden autumn leaves while children laugh in the distance" is creating a cheerful and nostalgic one of these.
Mood or Atmosphere
When a car enthusiast points at a brand-new sports car and asks their friend, "Hey, how do you like my new set of wheels?", they are using this device where a part stands in for the whole.
Synecdoche
Phrases like "jumbo shrimp," "original copy," and "liquid gas" are examples of this figure of speech that links two utterly opposing words.
Oxymoron
The timeless philosophical statement, "The only constant in life is change," is an example of this seemingly impossible statement that proves true upon closer inspection.
Paradox
A defense attorney who describes their client’s impoverished childhood, tearful mother, and history of hardships is using this rhetorical appeal to win the jury's sympathy.
Pathos