Rhetorical Terms and Figures of Speech

AP Lang

allusion

reference to a cultural phenomenon outside the text (such as another text, a historical event, etc.)

ambiguity

the quality of having or implying multiple meanings, or of being open to multiple interpretations.

anaphora

repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences.

anastrophe

inversion of the natural or usual word order. Stone walls do not a prison make. (Richard Lovelace, “To Althea, from Prison,” 1642).

antithesis

the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas. To err is human; to forgive, divine (Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1711). (This is also an example of ellipsis.)

conceit

an elaborate figure of speech, usually a simile or metaphor, that creates an ingenious or far-fetched parallel between apparently dissimilar or incongruous objects or situations.

ellipsis

deliberate omission of a word or words, which are readily implied by the context. The Master’s degree is awarded by thirty-two departments, and the Ph.D. by thirty-three.

euphemism

the substitution of less offensive words for harsh ones, often with ironic effect. The CEO announced that the company’s next reduction in force would occur before the holidays.

hyperbole

exaggerated statements meant to convey a feeling, but not meant to be taken literally.

imagery

descriptive language that appeals to any of the senses (not only visual)

irony

a literary device that hinges on a disparity between expectation and actuality; includes

verbal irony or irony of tone (disparity between what is said and what is meant);

situational irony (disparity between what one might reasonably expect and what actually occurs); and dramatic irony (disparity between what characters believe to be true and what the audience knows to be true).

litotes

understatement used for effect.

metaphor

the description of one thing in terms of some other completely distinct thing.

metonymy

the use of a closely related object as a substitute for the object or idea in mind. Those orders came directly from the Pentagon.

oxymoron

a figure of speech in which two words opposite in meaning are joined to create an effect.

paradox

a statement or situation that appears to contradict itself (but that in some cases may be logically resolved through a shift in perspective.

parallelism

similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness… (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859). This passage also uses anaphora, antithesis, asyndeton, and euphemism.

personification

the attribution of human qualities or abilities to abstractions or inanimate objects. The ground thirsts for rain.

simile

a figure of speech that explicitly makes a figurative comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as, or in the same way that… .

synecdoche

the use of a part to represent a whole. I asked for her hand in marriage.