Literary Devices and Rhetorical Strategies: Definitions and Examples for Students

Alliteration

"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." (Repetition of initial consonant sounds)

Allusion

"He's a real Romeo with the ladies." (Reference to Romeo and Juliet)

Analogy

"Life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you're gonna get." (Comparison used to explain an idea)

Anaphora

"We shall fight on the beaches... we shall fight..." (Repetition at the beginning of clauses)

Antithesis

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." (Opposing ideas in parallel structure)

Inductive Reasoning

Seeing several friendly dogs and concluding most dogs are friendly (Specific → general conclusion)

Verbal Irony

After failing a test: "Yeah, I totally nailed that." (Saying the opposite of what is meant)

Situational Irony

A fire station burns down (Opposite of what is expected)

Dramatic Irony

Audience knows the killer is behind the door, character doesn't

Jargon

Doctors using terms like "BP," "stat," "intubate" (Specialized language of a group)

Juxtaposition

Wealthy neighborhood placed next to poverty (Contrast through placement)

Litotes

"That test was not easy." (Understatement using a negative)

Metaphor

"Time is a thief." (Direct comparison)

Metonymy

"The White House issued a statement." (Object stands for something closely related)

Paradox

"Less is more." (Contradictory but true)

Parallelism

"I came, I saw, I conquered." (Repeated grammatical structure)

Personification

"The wind whispered through the trees." (Giving human traits to non-human things)

Polysyndeton

"I ran and jumped and yelled and laughed." (Many conjunctions for emphasis)

Tone

"Oh great, another homework assignment." (Sarcastic attitude)

Tricolon

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (Three parallel elements)

Trope

Calling a strict teacher a "dragon" (Figurative language)

Understatement

After being shot: "It's just a scratch." (Downplaying seriousness)