Easy Difficulty
A question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer.
Rhetorical Question
A short phrase that expresses a general truth or principle about life.
Aphorism
A short, amusing, or interesting story about a real incident or person.
Anecdote
"it's a piece of cake", "the early bird gets the worm", and "curiosity killed the cat"
Idiom
What has to be broken before you can use it?
An egg
A literary device used to draw emphasis through extreme exaggeration.
Hyperbole
The act or instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect.
Juxtaposition
A statement that goes against itself and defies logic, which can reveal a deeper truth or meaning.
Paradox
"y'all", "gonna", "wanna", "old as the hills", and "graveyard dead"
Colloquialism
I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I?
A Candle
Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses, sentences, or verses for rhetorical or poetic effect.
Epistrophe
Omission of the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses.
Asyndeton
The expansion of a statement, narrative, etc., as for rhetorical purposes.
Amplification
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Parallelism
There’s a one-story house in which everything is yellow. Yellow walls, yellow doors, yellow furniture. What color are the stairs?
There aren’t any—it’s a one-story house.
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.
Anaphora
Uses many conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to create a feeling of abundance, urgency, or intensity.
Polysyndeton
The rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences.
Antithesis
"the White House (words replace other concepts with correlation)
Metonymy
What question can you never answer yes to?
Are you asleep yet?
The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.
Euphemism
Words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.
Chiasmus
An example of something, or the act of giving an example of something.
Exemplification
"All hands on deck" (part of WHOLE concept being referenced)
Synecdoche
A man who was outside in the rain without an umbrella or hat didn’t get a single hair on his head wet. Why?
He was bald.