Rhetoric Devices

AP LANG

Allusion

A brief reference to a famous person, event, place, story, or work.

Analogy

A comparison used to explain an idea or show a similarity.

Apostrophe

Directly speaking to an absent person, an object, or an idea as if it could respond.

Dramatic irony

When the audience knows something that a character does not know.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor that continues through many sentences/entire work.

Polysyndeton

Using many conjunctions, such as 'and' or 'or,' close together.

Simile

A comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as.'

Situational irony

When what happens is the opposite of what is expected.

Verbal irony

Saying the opposite of what you actually mean, often sarcastically.

Accismus

Coyness, as in 'Oh you shouldn't have.' pretending to not want something wanted

Ad Hominem

Character attack instead of arguing.

Anadiplosis

Repeating the last word of one phrase to begin the next

Anaphora

Repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of several sentences or clauses.

Antithesis

Contrasting ideas / opposites to emphasize contrast.

Chiasmus

Crisscross structure in phrases / reversing order of words

Ethos

Argument by character, persuasion based on speaker's experience.

Hypophora

Person asks a rhetorical question and immediately answers it.

Idiom

A common expression whose meaning differs from the literal meaning of its words.

Innuendo

Planting negative ideas / hinting in the audience's head through indirect comments.

Logos

Argument by logic.

Metaphor

Makes something represent something else /comparison without using 'like' or 'as.'

Metonymy

Takes a characteristic and makes it stand for the whole/ replacing name with something closely connected to it

Non sequitur

A figure of irrelevance / statement or conclusion that doesnt follow logically what came beforehand

Paradox

A definition that seems contradictory but tells a truth.

Pathos

Argument by emotion.

Prolepsis

Anticipating objections and responding to them before they arise.

Rhetoric

The art of persuasion.

Solecism

A grammatical mistake or illogical statement.

Syncrisis

Reframing an argument by redefining it / comparing opposites to judge difference

Synecdoche

Swapping a member for the whole group or a part for the whole thing