rhetorical

Allegory

An extended metaphor; prolonged use of an image to express meaning.

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a series of words.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive clauses.

Anastrophe

Inversion of usual word order.

Aposiopesis

Breaking off in the middle of a sentence.

Apostrophe

Sudden turn to address a person or object who is present or absent.

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions.

Chiasmus

An abba arrangement of words; used with pairs of nouns or adjectives.

Ecphrasis

Extended description of a work of art or scene of nature.

Ellipsis

Omission of words easily understood in context.

Enjambment

Continuation of a clause beyond the end of one line and into the beginning of the next.

Golden line

Interlocking word order with a verb in the middle; synchesis.

Hendiadys

Expressing a single idea with two nouns joined by a conjunction.

Hyperbaton

Distortion of normal word order.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration.

Hysteron proteron

Reversal of the natural order of events.

Synchesis

Interlocking word order; ABAB order often used with pairs of nouns and adjectives.

Litotes

Use of a negative or double negative to express something positive.

Metaphor

Expression of meaning through another image.

Metonymy

The use of one noun or image to suggest another.

Onomatopoeia

Use of words that sound like their meaning.

Personification

Attribution of human characteristics to something not human.

Pleonasm

The use of superfluous (unnecessary) words to enrich the thought.

Polysyndeton

Use of more conjunctions than needed.

Simile

Explicit comparison using words like or as.

Synecdoche

Use of the part to express the whole.

Tmesis

Separation of a compound word into two parts.

Enallage

Transferred epithet; transfer of an adjective from its proper object to a related object.