Common Rhetorical Schemes and Tropes

Adage

A short, common saying expressing conventional wisdom. Similar to cliché, but without negative connotation.

Anamnesis

Calling to memory past matters. More specifically, citing a past author from memory.

Anadiplosis

The repetition of the last word (or phrase) from the previous line, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next.

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.

Anesis

Adding a concluding sentence that diminishes the effect of what has been said previously.

Anthypophora

A figure of reasoning in which one asks and then immediately answers one's own questions. Reasoning aloud.

Antimetabole

When words are repeated in the next phrase or clause in reverse order.

Antithesis

Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not always, in parallel structure).

Climax

The arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in parallel structure.

Epiplexis

Asking questions in order to chide, to express grief, or to inveigh. A kind of rhetorical question.

Epistrophe

Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words.

Euphemism

Substituting a more favorable for a pejorative or socially delicate term.

Hyperbole

Rhetorical exaggeration. Hyperbole is often accomplished via comparisons, similes, and metaphors.

Irony

Words that are meant to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.

Isocolon

A series of similarly structured elements having the same length. A kind of parallelism.

Metaphor

A comparison made by referring to one thing as another.

Oxymoron

Words that have apparently contradictory meanings are placed near each other.

Paradox

A statement that is self-contradictory on the surface, yet seems to evoke a truth nonetheless.

Parallelism

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

Parenthesis

Insertion of a verbal unit that interrupts normal syntactical flow.

Personification

Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities.

Repetition

The simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to secure emphasis.

Rhetorical Question

The rhetorical question. To affirm or deny a point strongly by asking it as a question.

Simile

An explicit comparison, often (but not necessarily) employing 'like' or 'as.'

Syntheton

When by convention two words are joined by a conjunction for emphasis.

Zeugma

A general term describing when one part of speech (most often the main verb, but sometimes a noun) governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series).