Rhetorical Devices #2

Alliteration

When the same letter or sound occurs at the beginning of adjoining words

(busy buzzing bees)

Anadiplosis

Last word/ phrase of a line is repeated at the beginning of the next

(Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate)

Antimetabole

Repetition of words in successive clauses, but in reversed order

(I know what I like and I like what I know)

Archaic Diction

Old ahh language

(Thou shalt not pass!)

Connotation

An idea or feeling that a word has in addition to its actual meaning

(She is confident has a positive connotation)

Denotation

Literal, dictionary definition of a word

(Look at that star or The patient is sick)

Hortative Sentence

A sentence that urges a call to action, or a motivational sentence

(Keep going!)

Inversion

Reversing the order of a subject-verb

(Never have I ever)

Litote

Using negative terms to suggest a positive attitude

(Not bad means good)

Oxymoron

A combo of contradictory/ opposing words

(The movie was seriously funny)

Parallelism

Two or more elements of a sentence have the same grammatical structure

(Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime)

Periphrasis

Using excessive/ different words to express an idea. Talking around the subject

(The white-haired man instead of the old man)

Rhetorical Question

A question asked but doesn’t expect a response since the answer is obvious

(Are you kidding me?)

Synecdoche

Word representing a whole or larger group in place of an individual group or person, or vice versa

(The criminal was caught by the officer → the law, I got a new car → new set of wheels)

Zeugma

One word connects two other, often unrelated, words

(They lost my toy and my trust)