Figurative Language and Poetic Devices

Grade 10

simile

• a comparison between two things using like or as

• Her hair is like fine silk.

metaphor

• states one this is another; a comparison WITHOUT using like or as

• ex. My brother’s room is a pigsty!

personification

• giving human qualities to animals and objects

• ex. The house appeared to be staring at me with looming eyes.

hyperbole

• an intentional extreme exaggeration

• ex. I have told you a million times to wash the dishes.

alliteration

• the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

• If Tommy takes two tomatoes from the basket, he will have five total.

pun

• a play on words; a humorous use of words with multiple meanings or words that sound similar but have different meanings

• ex. One hundred hares have escaped the zoo, so police are combing the area.

onomatopoeia

• language that means something or an action by imitating the sound associated with it

• ex. The truck’s engine roared as it raced through the city streets.

assonance

• the repetition of vowel sounds (have to be close together in order to notice the rhyme)

• ex. Go slow on the road

allusion

• a reference to a person, place, thing, event, or literary work that most people are familiar with

• ex. We got a new Einstein in school today.

idiom

• a saying that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase

• ex. The ball is in your court.

oxymoron

• when two words with opposite meanings are placed next to each other

• ex. jumbo shrimp, minor crisis, kill him with kindness

couplet

• rhyming pairs of lines in poetry

• ex. I do not like green eggs and ham

• I do not like them Sam I am