figures of speech
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
-
Foreshadowing:
- hints at what is to come
- Cacophony:
- use of harsh, discordant sounds for poetic effect
-
Rhythm:
- the beat
-
Persona:
- pretending to be something in order to write about it
-
Allusion:
- reference to mythology, religion, history, popular culture (comparison)
-
Hyperbole:
- deliberate exaggeration
-
Imagery:
- creating word pictures by using words that appeal to the senses
-
Pun:
- a word with two meanings
-
Euphemism:
- calling an unpleasant fact by a pleasant name
-
Metaphor:
- a comparison, stating that one object is something else
-
Consonance:
- repeating the same consonant sound
-
Understatement:
- a statement covering less than the truth or fact
-
Rhyme:
- repeating the same stressed syllable
-
Pejorative/dysphemism:
- using an unpleasant expression
-
Antithesis:
- placing contrasting statements side by side (using parallel structure)
-
Metonymy:
- naming a thing by one of its attributes
- Alliteration
- consecutive words, each starting with the same sound
-
Onomatopoeia:
-
the sound of a word suits its meaning - sound effects
-
Malapropism:
- using a big word incorrectly
-
Symbolism:
- something concrete that represents an idea
-
Synecdoche:
- a part is substituted for the whole
-
Irony:
- discrepancy in what is and what is expected
-
Oxymoron:
- contradictory ideas used to express one meaning
-
Repetition:
- to say a sound, word, or lines over and over again
-
Euphony:
- pleasant sounding
-
Paradox:
- a seeming contradiction
-
Transferred epithet:
-
misplaced adjective (for poetic effect)
-
Personification:
- giving life to inanimate objects
-
Rhetorical Question:
- asking a question in such a way that the answer, being obvious, is not needed
-
Apostrophe:
-
addressing directly an inanimate object as if it were alive, or an absent person as if
he/she were present -
Poetic license:
- having the right to change science, history, and the rules of language
-
Assonance:
- repetition of vowel sounds (not consonant sounds) in a line