Rhetorical Terms AP Lang

Alliteration

the repetition of initial consonant sounds

"His soul swooned slowly"

Allusion

an indirect or direct reference to a person, event, or thing

"Is there an Einstein in your physics class?"

Anaphora

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences

"Be bold. Be brief. Be gone."

Antimetabole

involves repeating a phrase in reverse order

"Fair is foul and foul is fair."

Assonance

the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences

"Beside the lake, beneath the trees…”

Asyndeton

eliminate conjunctions between the phrases, and in the sentence, maintaining grammatical accuracy

"Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure?"

Consonance

repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase.

east, west / good, rude / stick, luck

Diction

word choice

Formal (Good day to you), informal (see you later), colloquial (cheerio), slang (peace out)

Epistrophe

the repetition of phrases or words at the ends of the clauses or sentences

"Where now? Who now? When now?"

Epithet

adjective or phrase that is used to express a characteristic of a person or thing

Alexander "The Great"

Imagery

to create images in the mind of the reader

five senses: auditory, visual, tactile, gustatory, olfactory

Metaphor

makes a comparison by directly relating one thing to another unrelated thing. (without like or as)

"All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree."

Mood

the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader

types of mood: whimsical, ominous, cheerful, fantastical, gloomy

Paradox

a statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense.

"Youth is wasted on the young."

Parallelism

is when phrases in a sentence have similar or the same grammatical structure.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Polysyndeton

the repeated use of coordinating conjunctions to connect different items in a sentence.

"We have ships and men and money and stores."

Rhetorical Question

a question posed to make a point

"How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?"

Simile

a figure of speech that directly compares two things using "like", "as", or "than"

"His heart was thumping like a drum"

Symbolism

a literary device that refers to the use of symbols in a literary work.

"Balloons symbolize hopes and dreams in the Disney film Up."

Tone

the attitude or approach that the author takes toward the work's central theme or subject

Ambiguity

a word, phrase, or statement which contains more than one meaning

"Each of us saw her duck."

Anadiplosis

repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause

Night is filled with darkness and the darkness is swarming with monsters.

Anthimeria

substitution of one part of speech for another

"Existence these days feels quite void-y."

Aphorism

a brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life

"Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream."

Cliche

a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse

"It was a dark and stormy night"

Conceit

a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors

"A broken heart is like a damaged clock."

Connotation

refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly

"Wall Street" literally means a street situated in Lower Manhattan, but connotatively it refers to wealth and power.

Denotation

literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or associated meanings

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

Euphemism

a polite or mild word or expression used to refer to something embarrassing, taboo, or unpleasant

"When Grandpa Jones finally kicked the bucket, the family rejoiced—for he was a detestable old man with lots of money."

Hyperbole

the use of obvious and deliberate exaggeration

"I'm dying of thirst"

Invective

insulting or abusive language used to express blame or severe disapproval

"You dirty rotten scoundrel."

Juxtaposition

to place two concepts, characters, ideas, or places near or next to each other so that the reader will compare and contrast them

"A butler spends his days in a beautiful mansion dressed in a tuxedo, but returns home to a closet-sized apartment in a rundown part of town."

Litotes

a figure of speech in which a negative statement is used to affirm a positive sentiment

"Not bad (which means "good")

Malapropism

an incorrect word used accidentally in place of another word with a similar sound

"I love to dance the flamingo." (flamenco)

Metonymy

something is called by a new name that is related in meaning to the original thing or concept

"The pen is mightier than the sword."

Periphrasis

the use of excessive and longer words

Simple example: "more smarter" instead of "intelligent"

Polyptoton

rhetorical repetition of the same root word, however, each time the word is repeated in a different way

"Who shall watch the watchmen?"

Synecdoche

a part represents the whole

suits for businessmen and boots for soldier

Synesthesia

one sense is described in terms of another.

Scott Fitzgerald describes a party in the Great Gatsby as having 'yellow cocktail music. '

Understatement

intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is

"I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain."