diction and tropes

Allegory

a piece of work that uses events, actions, or characters to illustrate complex messages and ideas that the audience can easily understand.  

Hyperbole

A statement or claim that is overemphasized or exaggerated and could be used for a humorous purpose, but not always.

Simile

A figure of speech that compares two things through a similar quality. Similes usually use the terms “like” or “as” to express the comparison. For example, I ran like the wind. 

Metaphor

a rhetorical device that uses the substitution of one word for another to suggest a likeness or a common comparison between the two, for example, her heart is gold. 

Personification

Something nonhuman is referred to as something with human characteristics or embodying human qualities.

Metonymy

a word or phrase that replaces another word or phrase with something that represents it or is associated with it.

Synecdoche

a word or phrase that uses a piece of something in place of the whole object.

Apostrophe

When the speaker or writer stops what they are talking about to address something or someone (they are usually not physically present). 

Eponym

A person who has something named after them.

Symbol, symbolism

Symbols are the objects, ideas, or elements that have a secondary meaning to represent something else. 

Allusion

something that is said or written that refers to or mentions another person or subject in an indirect way

Pun

The use of a word’s different meanings, or using a word that sounds the same as another word to make a joke.

Conceit

 An extended metaphor that compares two unlike things, allowing the reader to look at them in a different way, and connect the two objects by what they do have in common.

Colloquialism

A word(s) that is not legit, but adapted by society, usually from pop culture. 

Idiom

A phrase that has a meaning you wouldn't be able to make sense of from the meanings of each individual word. 

Dialect

The way in which someone speaks with a regional twist

Slang

The unique choice of words used by people of inferior reputation. 

Jargon

The use of complicated words by a specific group of people with the purpose that others have a difficult understanding of it

Connotation

 the related ideas or feelings to a word that deviate from the actual definition and may be influenced by the word’s context.

Denotation

the actual definition of a word without the branching concepts such as ideas or feelings it inspires.

Formal vs. Informal Diction

word choice

Cliche

a remark or saying that has been repeated by many people over time and thus is regarded as overused

Archaic Diction

Using old fashioned speech within text to demonstrate language from the past. 

Pedantic Diction

Someone who talks using a lot of big words. They are just trying to show off how smart they are and it’s annoying.

Concrete vs. Abstract Diction

The use of words in their literal meaning, often making references to things that involve the senses.