Figures of Speech

Mood

The general feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader.

Tone

The writer's or speaker's attitude in regard to the subject and the audience. Understanding this depends on the reader's appreciation (knowledge) of word choice, details, imagery, and language.

Diction

The words an author uses to convey ideas to a reader. There are four levels: formal, informal, colloquial, and slang.

Imagery

The author's use of language that appeals to the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) in order to help the reader paint a picture in their minds.

Syntax

The way words are arranged in a sentence.

Simile

A direct or explicit comparison between two usually unrelated things indicating a likeness or similarity between some attribute found in both things, using "like" or "as".

Example: The bottle rolled off the table like a teardrop.

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two usually unrelated things indicating a likeness or analogy between attributes found in both things. This does not use "like" or "as" to indicate the comparison.

Example: She was just a trophy to Ricardo, another object to possess.

Personification

The giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals.

Example: Thunder grumbled and raindrops reported for duty.

Synecdoche

The technique of mentioning a part of something to represent the whole.

Example: Upon seeing JP's new car, Sandra said, "Check out his wheels!"

Metonymy

The name of a thing is replaced by the name of an associated thing. One name is used instead of another.

Example: It was the town's mechanic, not the rich lawyer, who had the nicest ride.

Symbol

A word or image that signifies something other than what it literally represents.

Example: A ring, especially a band of gold, represents faithfulness and fidelity: "With this ring, I thee wed."

Allegory

A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one.

Example: The Lord of the Flies by William Golding has many allegories about society, morality and religion, to name a few.

Hyperbole

Also called an overstatement; an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis and is not to be taken literally.

Example: I can smell pizza from a mile away.

Litotes

Also called an understatement; consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.

Example: Learning to juggle flaming chainsaws might be a little tricky at first.

Antithesis

A balancing or contrasting of one term against another.

Example: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Apostrophe

The addressing of someone or something usually not present, as though present.

Example:

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky."

In the above nursery rhyme, a child addresses a star (an imaginary idea).

Irony

A device by which the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker (or by a speaker) in a literary work. An incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true (or between what a character perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive.)

Example: A man leaves a quarter for a tip. The waitress replies on his way out, "Thank you for the generous tip, Mister."

Paradox

A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements.

Example: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Oxymoron

A compact paradox—a figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, placed side by side.

Example: Clearly misunderstood, they were alone together in the civil war.

Alliteration

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. It emphasizes the words and makes them more memorable.

Example: The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew.

Allusion

A reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature. Allusions are often indirect or brief references to well-known characters or events.

Example: Adult stories never made sense, and they were so slow to start. They made me feel like there were secrets, Masonic, mythic secrets, to adulthood. Why didn't adults want to read about Narnia, about secret islands and smugglers and dangerous fairies?

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Example: She didn't speak. She didn't stand. She didn't even look up when we came in.

Euphemism

The substitution of a milder, vaguer word or expression for one considered to be offensive or unpleasant.

Example: The dog was put down.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences.

Example: "POetry is old, ancient, gOes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. SO old it is that nO man knOws how and why the first pOems came."

Consonance

Characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession. This should not be confused with assonance, which is the repetition of vowel sounds.

Example: "pitter patter" or "all mammals named Sam are clammy".

Pun

AKA paronomasia. A form of word play that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.

Example: Frog parking only. All others will be toad.

Onomatopoeia

The formation of a word by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.

Example: cuckoo, meow, honk, boom