Common Rhetorical Terms

alliteration

the repition of the initial or medial consonant in adjacent words

Peter piper picked peppers.

apostrophe

direct address to an absent or dead person or personification of object

Juliet expressing her love for Romeo after his death

analogy

a comparison of two seemingly different entities

to learn to ride a bike is like learning to read

anaphora

repitition of the same word or phrase at beginning of successive clauses

i have a dream…

i have a dream…

i have a dream…

anastrophe

inversion of the natural word order for heightened dramatic effect

Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral

antithesis

juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel syntactic structure

no pain, no gain

appositive

a noun that follows another noun by renaming/identifying it

Sparkles, my cat, likes to sleep.

assonance

the repitition of similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables of words

The sun rose high in the bright sky.

asyndeton

the omission of coordinating conjunctions between a series of clauses

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears

chiasmus

the reversal of grammatical structure in successive phrases or clauses

You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.

consonance

the repitition of similar consonant sounds in stressed syllables of words

Mike likes his bike

cultural allusion

a reference to a person, place, thing, or idea in a culture

five score years ago

direct address

direct communication with a specific people(s)

Hey Bob, how are you doing?

epistrophe

repetition of same words or phrases at the end of successive clauses

There is no “me” problem. There is no “we” problem. There is only a “us” problem.

epizeuxis

immediate repititon of a word for the sake of emphasis

well, well, well

euphemism

use of an inoffensive expression to stand for the more direct phrase

under the weather

hyperbole

use of exaggerated terms for purpose of emphasis or extreme effect

i am starving to death

irony, verbal

saying something contradictory

failing a test and then saying “perfect, just what I needed on my transcript”

juxtaposition

two things placed together, typically for contrasting effect

I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

litotes

deliberate use of understatement to enhance impact of verbal statement

I am not unaware of your actions.

metaphor

implied comparison between things that have a common element, distinguished from a simile that employs an explicit comparison

Time is money.

metonymy

substitution of an attributive or suggestive word for a concept

do not disrespsect the crown!

onomatopoeia

a word associated with a sound effect

“Pop!”

oxymoron

joining two words that are normally contradictory in meaning to produce the effect of irony through paradox

You look awfully pretty.

paradox

a statement that seems to contradict itself

I find myself an exile in my own land.

parallelism

similarity of structure in a pair of related words, phrases, or clauses

seven times cursed and seven times sealed

personification

investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities

My alarm yelled at me this morning.

polysyndeton

proliferation of coordinating conjunctions in a series of clauses

We have apples and oranges and bananas and kiwis and peaches.

rhetorical question

a question that is not supposed to be answered, used for effect

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

sententia

a short phrase that sums up an argument

The pen is mightier than the sword.

simile

explicit comparison between two things that have a common element, using as or like, unlike a metaphor in which a comparison is implicit

The moon is as white as milk.

syllepsis

use of words understood differently in relation to two or more words

she broke his leg and his heart

synecdoche

a figure of speech in which part of something stands for the whole

All hands on deck.

synesthesia

concurrent appeal to several senses, the response of one sense to the stimulation of another

I heard the bright colors of the music.