Figures of Speech with English Definitions

Alliteration

the repetition of the same consonant letter at the beginning of successive words

Anaphora

the repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive clauses

Anastrophe

the placing of a preposition after its object

Aposiopesis

an abrupt failure to complete a sentence

Apostrophe

to address something/someone that cannot respond

Assonance

the close occurrence of similar vowel sounds

Asyndeton

the omission of the conjunction

Chiasmus

an ABBA arrangement of words

Consonance

the repetition of a consonant sound within several words in a row

Diminutive

using a -ulus, -ula, -ulum or similar suffix to denote affection

Ecphrasis

a digression; a descriptive passage that digresses from the main passage

Ellipsis

the omission or leaving out of one or more words needed for the sentence to make sense

Enjambment

the running over of a sentence from one verse into another so that closely related words fall in different lines

Epithet

a descriptive term (word or phrase) accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage

Hendiadys

the use of two nouns joined by an "and" to convey one idea

Hyperbole

exaggeration

Hysteron Proteron

reversal of the natural and logical order of events or ideas

Irony

The use, clearly intentional or apparently unintentional (dramatic), of words with a meaning contrary to the situation.

Juxtaposition

the ironic placement of words; to situate side by side in an ironic fashion

Line Frame

when the first and last word in a line of poetry go together grammatically or thematically

Litotes

an understatement; the expression of an affirmative by the negative of its opposite (a double negative)

Metaphor

an implied comparison

Metonymy

the use of one word for another that it suggests, to avoid common words

Onomatopoeia

use of words whose sound suggests the sense

Oxymoron

the use of apparently contradictory words in the same phrase, but not having to be right next to each other

Personification

treatment of inanimate objects as human

Pleonasm

redundancy

Polysyndeton

too many conjunctions

Prolepsis

foreshadowing or hinting

Simile

an expressed comparison

Synchysis

an ABAB arrangement of words

Synecdoche

the use of a part for the whole

Tmesis

the separation or splitting of the two parts of a compound word

Transferred Epithet

when an adjective grammatically agrees with one noun, but is meant to be applied to another by context

Trident

a list of three elements, with the third being the most important

Zeugma

the use of a verb with two nouns, usually an object, when the verb really only applies to one of them

Hyperbaton

tactical separation of words that naturally go together

parallelism, parallel structure

The repetition of phrases, clauses, or sentences. This repetition may create a sense of balance between ideas, give emphasis to an idea, or establish a relationship between ideas.