Figures of Speech

• Simile: A comparison between two things using the words "like" or "as"
• Metaphor: A comparison between two things not using the words "like" or "as"
• Extended Metaphor: Recurring metaphor or analogy
• Mixed Metaphor: Incongruous or Incompatible terms used in more than one comparison
• Personification: The attribution of human qualities to non-human objects or concepts.
• Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which a speaker or writer addresses someone or something that is not present.
• Allusion: A reference to something outside the text, usually a literary or historical reference.
• Alliteration: The repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words.
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds.
• Onomatopoeia: Sound effects that imitate the sounds of objects or actions.
• Rhyme: Depends on sound rather than on written word.
• Antithesis: Compares and contradicts ideas or statements within a sentence
• Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which two contradictory terms are used together.
• Paradox: A seemingly absurd statement that seems to contradict itself but is true.
• Irony: Implies the opposite of what is said.
• Situational Irony: Opposite of what is expected occurs.
• Dramatic Irony: The audience knows more than the characters about the situation.
• Sarcasm: Occurs when one thing is said, but something else is intended or understood.
• Satire: A literary genre that uses humor and irony to criticize and make fun of people or things.
• Parody: A literary work that imitates another work, often in a humorous way.
• Appropriation: Parts of an original text are used in a different context for a different audience.
• Epigram: A short, witty, and often humorous verse
• Hyperbole: An exaggerated statement or claim that is not meant to be taken literally.
• Litotes: Uses a negative and an opposite to understate what is intended.
• Euphemism: A mild or indirect way of saying something.
• Innuendo: an allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive or disparaging one
• Climax: Build-up of ascending ideas.
• Anti Climax: A sudden fall in tension or excitement in a story or play.
• Puns: A play on words that creates a double meaning. Alike in sound but different in meaning.
• Rhetorical Question: A question that is asked to make a point or to make the listener think.
• Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole.
• Metonymy: Something associated with the object represents the object.
• Malapropism: a misuse of words or phrases due to a mishearing or misreading.
• Spoonerism: a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words.