Terms 1
Terms 2
Terms 3
Terms 4
Terms 5
100
A figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory words for a special effect
What is an oxymoron?
100
A story with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning, and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning.
What is an allegory?
100
A figure of speech which contains exaggeration for emphasis.
What is a hyperbole?
100
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
What is an anaphora?
100
The transposition of the consonant sounds of two words.
What is a spoonerism?
200
A brief account of or a story about an individual or an incident.
What is an anecdote?
200
The substitution of a mild and pleasant expression for a harsh and blunt one.
What is a euphemism?
200
The presence of an object, action, or person who does not belong in the chronology.
What is an anachronism?
200
Reference to a well-known historical event, literature, or person to further a description.
What is an allusion?
300
The inscription on a tomb or grave.
What is an epitaph?
300
A quotation or excerpt on the title page of a book, often suggesting a theme to be later developed.
What is an epigraph?
300
Likeness to the truth, and therefore the appearance of being real or true, even when fantastic
What is verisimilitude?
300
The imitative use of the words, style, attitude, tone and/or ideas of an author in such a way as to make them ridiculous.
What is a parody?
300
When an absent person, place, or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding.
What is an apostrophe?
400
A figure of speech in which each sentence or clause ends with the same word.
What is an epistrophe?
400
Figurative language using the deliberate mixing of sensory information.
What is synesthesia?
400
Beginning a story in the midst of the action.
What is in media res?
400
A word, phrase or expression written in plain, casual, or everyday speech.
What is colloquialism?
400
The manipulation of the traditional order of syntax.
What is inverted syntax?
500
A figure of speech which contains an understatement, often expressed as a negative, for emphasis or to convey the positive.
What is a litote?
500
A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole.
What is synecdoche?
500
Fundamentally contrasting ideas set side by side and sharpened by their noticeably different characteristics.
What is antithesis?
500
When any unanticipated intervener resolves a difficult situation.
What is deus ex machina?
500
A figure of speech in which an attribute of the thing is substituted for the thing itself.
What is metonymy?
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