Creative Writing: Figurative Language

English majoring

Literary Tropes

Utilizes figurative language to create an artistic image.

Accismus

A rhetorical term for coyness: a form of irony where person feigns a lack of interest in something they actually desire.

Adhortio

To exhort people to do something presumably for their benefit.

Antanaclasis

A word or phrase is repeated in a sentence but with a different meaning each time.

Antanagoge

Putting a positive spin on a negative situation or statement to minimize its impact.

Antiphrasis

Saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious to the audience that a contradiction exists.

Catachresis

The use of a word in a context that differs from its proper application.

Categoria

Direct description of another person’s faults; exposing their negative acts or vice of one’s adversary.

Comprobatio

Approving and commending a virtue (in order to win hearer’s favor.

Correctio

The use of corrective extension to a statement.
ex. he is the best warrior in the region - nay, the entire country.

Dehortio

A dissuasive statement; discouraging listeners from taking inept actions; typically start with never or do not.

Distinctio

Eliminating ambiguous meaning of a word or phrase by explicitly specifying explanation of such word.

Distinctio

"We need to move this project forward with speed—and by speed, I don't mean recklessness, but rather a focused and efficient pace."

Dirimens Copulatio

mentioning a balancing or opposing fact to prevent the argument from being one-sided.

Dirimens Copulatio

"The new policy is certainly ambitious, yet it lacks a clear implementation strategy."

Dysphemism

Derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant one; opposite of euphemism.

Dysphemism

"He's a freeloader living off his parents."

Effictio

A verbal depiction of someone’s body; It's about painting a picture of someone using words.

Exuscitatio

stirring others by one’s own vehement feeling (sometimes by means of a rhetorical question)

Exuscitatio

"How much longer must we endure this injustice?! How many more will suffer before we rise up?! Are we truly so blind, so complacent, that we will let our children inherit this broken world?!"

Hypophora

Raises a question and then answering it immediately.

Merism

Pair of of contrasting words used to express totality or completeness

Merism

“They searched high and low for the lost treasure.”

Optatio

Expressing a wish, often ardently.