HOMOPHONES
YOU-PHEMISMS
ONOMATOPOEIA
CONTRACTIONS
PORTMANTEAU WORDS

LITERARY TERMS & DEVICES
100

To pour down or rule over

rain/reign

100

2-letter word that means "you" in Julius Caesar's dying words

Tu

100

Listerine asks you to do this with its product twice a day

gargle

100

It can be used after a number from 1 to 12 to tell someone what direction an object is

o'clock

100

Similar to smog, smaze comes from these 2 words

smoke & haze

100

Italian for "stopping place" gives us this word for a part of a poem

stanza

200

Was acquainted with or freshly made

knew/new

200

"You" is defined as the pronoun of this "person", singular or plural

Second person

200

A droning or vibrating sound, or an excited interest in a trend in society; also a type of saw

buzz

200

It's the contracted military rank famed in cereal

cap'n

200

Here's a typical departure from this type of facility in Lower Manhattan

a heliport

200

It's the German word for a novel about the education & formative years of the protagonist; "The Catcher in the Rye" is one

a bildungsroman

300

Blabbed or rang a bell

told/tolled

300

A little-used plural of "thou", it comes before "of little faith"

Ye

300

To give a just-fed baby a pat on the back (or several)

to burp

300

A 2015 book says that for over 200 years, this word "has been knocking at the door of standard English" but is still shunned

ain't

300

Part of the name of this incendiary mixture comes from the acidic salt palmitate

napalm

300

This concept of divine intervention to resolve the plot was used in the Sophocles play "Philoctetes"

deus ex machina

400

Stabbed by a bull's horn or a drinking vessel made out of a vegetable shell

gored/gourd

400

This Brooklynese plural of "you" is a homophone of a word meaning "multiple female sheep"

youse

400

You don't need to be crazy to know that this bird, Cuculus canorus, has an odd call

a cuckoo

400

Don't confuse a 5-letter possessive pronoun with this contraction, its homophone

who's (or they're)

400

An enhanced bionic human can also be called a cyborg, short for this pair of words

cybernetic organism

400

Greek for "exaggeration" gives us this device, an intentionally exaggerated figure of speech

hyperbole

500

Take a quick look or the summit

peek/peak

500

This Southern plural of "you" is a homophone of a word meaning "a two-masted sailing vessel"

Y'all

500

This word that describes a tearful cry is a homophone for a glitzy destination for Cinderella

a bawl

500

3 contractions led to this triple rhyme phrase meaning basically "if only I had--but oh well"

woulda, coulda, shoulda

500

To retcon is to go back & fill in a fictional character's history & comes from these 2 words of 4 & 5 syllables

retroactive continuity

500

This metrical foot is 2 short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed one

anapest