Terms 1
A figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory words for a special effect
What is an oxymoron?
A story with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning, and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning.
What is an allegory?
A figure of speech which contains exaggeration for emphasis.
What is a hyperbole?
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
What is an anaphora?
A form of repetition in which the last word of one clause or sentence is repeated as the first word of the following clause or sentence.
What is anadiplosis?
A brief account of or a story about an individual or an incident.
What is an anecdote?
The substitution of a mild and pleasant expression for a harsh and blunt one.
What is a euphemism?
A reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of words.
What is chiasmus
When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions.
What is Polysyndeton?
Reference to a well-known historical event, literature, or person to further a description.
What is an allusion?
The inscription on a tomb or grave.
What is an epitaph?
A figure of speech in which the beginning of a clause or sentence is repeated at the end of that same clause or sentence.
What is an epanalepsis?
An apparent contradiction of ides or statements.
What is paradox?
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?
When an absent person, place, or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding.
What is an apostrophe?
A figure of speech in which each sentence or clause ends with the same word.
What is an epistrophe?
Figurative language using the deliberate mixing of sensory information.
What is synesthesia?
The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author.
What is an ellipsis?
A word, phrase or expression written in plain, casual, or everyday speech.
What is colloquialism?
The manipulation of the traditional order of syntax.
What is inverted syntax?
A figure of speech which contains an understatement, often expressed as a negative, for emphasis or to convey the positive.
What is a litote?
A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole.
What is synecdoche?
Fundamentally contrasting ideas set side by side and sharpened by their noticeably different characteristics.
What is antithesis?
When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies. “The butler killed the lights, and then the mistress.” “I quickly dressed myself and the salad.”
What is zuegma?
A figure of speech in which an attribute of the thing is substituted for the thing itself.
What is metonymy?