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Antithesis
makes use of contrasting words, phrases, sentences, or ideas for emphasis of dissimilarity (generally used in parallel grammatical structures).
Example: " Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities."
Isocolon
A series of similarly structured elements having the same length (# of words or syllables). A kind of parallelism.
Example: His purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous.
Parallelism
similarity in structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases or clauses. Emphasizes similarity and connections.
Example: ...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Anastrophe
A scheme in which normal word order is changed for emphasis.
Example: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
Apposition
Placing side-by-side two coordinate elements, the second of which serves to identify, rename, explain or modify the first.
Example: John Morgan, the president of the Sons of the Republic, could not be reached for comment.
Parenthesis
the insertion of a verbal unit in a position which is incongruous with the normal word flow.
Example: "Every time I try to think of a good rhetorical example, I rack my brains but--you guessed--nothing happens."
Asyndeton
deliberate omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account.
Example: "On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame."
Ellipsis
the omission of one or more words readily implied by context, which must be supplied by the listener or reader.
Example: And he to England shall along with you.
Alliteration
the recurrence of initial or medial consonant sounds.
Example: Tart, tingling and even ticklish.
Anadiplosis
repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next.
Example: Labor and care are rewarded with success, success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry...
Anaphora
the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism.
Example: To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. --Peacham
Antimetabole
reversing the grammatical order of repeated words or phrases to intensify the final formulation, to present alternatives, or to show contrast:
Example: "All work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work."
Assonance
similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants.
Example: An old mad, blind, despised, and dying king.
Climax
consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis.
Example: I think we've reached a point of great decision, not just for our nation, not only for all humanity, but for life upon earth.
Epistrophe
forms the counterpart to anaphora, because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Example: I'll have my bond! Speak not against my bond! I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond!
Polyptoton
A rhetorical term for repetition of words derived from the same root but with different endings. Words do not lose their literal meaning.
Example: The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their strength. Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant.
Polysyndeton
the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause.
Examples: They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked.
Metaphor
implied comparison between two things of unlike nature
Example: Her home was a prison.
Metonymy
substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant
Example: crown for royalty, wealth for rich people, pen for writers
In Europe we gave the cold shoulder to De Gaulle, and the warm hand to Mao Tse-tung.
Simile
explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature using like or as
Example: Life is like a box of chocolates.
Synecdoche
figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole
Examples: All hands on deck. Sail for ship, hands for helpers, roofs for houses, silver for money, canvas for sail, steel for sword.
Anthimeria
the substitution of one part of speech for another.
Example: The thunder would not peace at my bidding.
Apostrophe
the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present
Example: O eloquent, just and mighty Death!
Personification
investing abstractions for inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities
Example: the smiling sun
Pun: Antanaclasis
repetition of a word in two different senses
Example: But lest I should be condemned of introducing license, when I oppose licensing.
Pun: Paranomasia
use of words alike in sound but different in meaning
Example: He robbed chickens and was charged with fowl play.
Pun: Syllepsis
use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs
Example: There is a certain type of woman who'd rather press grapes than clothes.
Zeugma
using a single verb to refer to two different objects in an ungrammatical but striking way, or artfully using an adjective to refer to two separate nouns, even though the adjective would logically only be appropriate for one of the two
Example: He maintained a flourishing business and racehorse.
My teeth and ambitions are bared.
Hyperbole
the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect
Example: My left leg weighs three tons.
Irony
use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word
Example: For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, honourable man.
Litotes
deliberate use of understatement
Example: To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment.
Onomatopoeia
use of words whose sound echoes the sense
Example: Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far.
Oxymoron
the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory
Example: O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches!
Paradox
an apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth
Example: Art is a form of lying to tell the truth.
Rhetorical Question
asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely
Sarcasm
the act of ostensibly saying one thing but meaning another.
Example: Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts.
