Literary devices

• Onomatopoeia


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  a words that sound like their meaning
• Alliteration


  Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines
• Assonance


  Repeated vowel sounds in words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines
• Consonance


  Repeated consonant sounds at the ending of words placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent lines. This produces a pleasing kind of near-rhyme
• Pun


  Word play in which words with totally different meanings have similar or identical sounds
• Cacophony


  A discordant series of harsh, unpleasant sounds helps to convey disorder. This is often intensified by the combined effect of the meaning and the difficulty of pronunciation
• Euphony


  A series of musically pleasant sounds, showing a sense of harmony and beauty to the language
• Connotation


  The emotional, psychological, or social suggestions of a word; its implications and associations apart from its literal meaning
• Denotation


  The dictionary definition of a word; its literal meaning apart from any associations or connotations
• Personification


  Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or abstract idea
• Hyperbole


  An outrageous exaggeration used for effect
• Apostrophe


  Speaking directly to a real or imagined listener or inanimate object; addressing that person or thing by name
• Cliché


  Any figure of speech that was once clever and original but through overuse has become outdated
• Analogy


  A comparison, usually something unfamiliar with something familiar
• Simile


  A direct comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as"
• Metaphor


  A direct comparison between two (2) unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other
• Symbol


  An ordinary object, event, animal, or person to which we have attached extraordinary meaning and significance
• Allusion


  A brief reference to some person, historical event, work of art, or Biblical or mythological situation or character
• Allegory


  A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning or any real-world problem or occurrence. Often, it is a symbolic narrative that has not only a literal meaning, but a larger one understood only after reading the entire story or poem
• Oxymoron


  A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other
• Paradox


  A statement in which a seeming contradiction may reveal an unexpected truth
• Irony


  A contradictory statement or situation to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true
• Metonymy


  A figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it
• Synecdoche


  A person or a part of an object represent the whole or vice-versa
• Euphemism


  Used to lessen the effect of a statement; substituting something innocuous for something that might be offensive or hurtful