Category 1
“Apparently, being stranded in the middle of the ocean was supposed to be ‘a minor inconvenience’.”
Tone
“The staircase complained beneath every footstep, as though the house were keeping track of its visitors.”
Personification
“In the kingdom, every citizen was given an identical mask at birth. Anyone who removed theirs was declared dangerous, until the people could no longer remember what their own faces looked like.”
Allegory
“The parking patrol paced impatiently outside the stadium.”
Alliteration
“The old ceiling fan clicked, clicked, clicked above them, refusing either to stop or to work properly.”
Onomatopoeia
“By the third week, the silence between them had become a wall neither knew how to climb.”
Metaphor
“The queue outside the office stretched far enough to have its own postal code.”
Hyperbole
“When asked whether he had studied for the examination, Liam confidently replied, ‘Define studied.’”
Humour
“The article calls the incident a ‘riot’, while the eyewitness describes it as a ‘demonstration that turned chaotic.’”
Diction
“She kept the key to her childhood home around her neck long after the house had been sold.”
Symbolism
“He wanted answers. Answers about the letter. Answers about his father. Answers about why nobody had told him.”
Repetition
“The photograph had been taken only minutes before the accident. Nobody noticed, until later, the empty chair in the background.”
Foreshadowing
“Outside the stadium, the streets were silent and empty; inside, thousands of voices rose as one.”
Contrast
“The wedding photographs showed champagne, white flowers and perfect smiles. On the following page was the police report.”
Juxtaposition
“He knew what he had done — and, for the first time, he was not sure he regretted it.”
Caesura
“She looked at the packed suitcase and wondered whether this was her own little Garden of Eden—if only she could bring herself to leave.”
Allusion
“After spending years warning everyone about the dangers of technology, the school’s principal accidentally posted the confidential staff memo to the entire student body.”
Irony
“Each time the character lies, the story returns to the image of a locked door. By the final chapter, every important decision is accompanied by another door being closed.”
Motif
“The government launched a groundbreaking campaign to combat poverty: a beautifully designed website explaining that poor people should simply spend less money.”
Satire
“The passengers shifted in their seats as the bus hissed and shuddered through the sleeping streets.”
Sibilance
“Beyond the ridge, the town lay scattered beneath the evening sky, its corrugated roofs catching the last strips of copper-coloured light.”
Visual imagery
“The kitchen still smelled of yesterday’s curry, burnt onions and the faint sweetness of the mangoes left ripening on the windowsill.”
Olfactory imagery
“The metal railing was cold enough to make his palm ache, its rough, flaking surface catching against his skin.”
Tactile imagery
“From somewhere beyond the darkness came the uneven rhythm of footsteps, stopping whenever she stopped and beginning again whenever she moved.”
Auditory imagery
“The first bite was painfully sour, followed by the sugary burst of ripe fruit and the faint bitterness of the peel.”
Gustatory imagery