figures of speech

• simile: a figure of speech involving the indirect comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion).
• metaphor: a figure of speech (direct comparison) in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable
• hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
• personification: the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form
• onomatopoeia: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle)
• alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words (repitition of consonant vowel)
• assonance: resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby words, arising particularly from the rhyming of two or more stressed vowels, but not consonants (e.g. sonnet, porridge), but also from the use of identical consonants with different vowels (e.g. killed, cold, culled)
• irony: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect (sarcasm)