figures of speech

Metaphor

A comparison without "like" or "as"

Simile

A comparison with "like" or "as"

Personification

Giving human attributes to inanimate objects

Hyperbole

Over-exaggeration

Mixed Metaphor

Two or more illogical metaphors combined

Metonymy

Substituting a closely related phrase for another

Synecdoche

Substituting a part for the whole or vice versa

Symbolism

Using an object to represent an abstract idea

Imagery

Vivid description appealing to the senses

Analogy

Explaining by comparing to a familiar situation

Connotation

Implied meaning of a word or phrase

Verbal Irony

Saying the opposite of what is meant

Dramatic Irony

Audience knows more than characters

Situational Irony

Outcome is opposite of expected

Juxtaposition

Placing items side by side to contrast

Paradox

Self-contradictory statement revealing truth

Understatement

Downplaying the importance of a situation

Foreshadowing

Hinting at future events in the text

Allusion

Reference to historical, literary, or cultural elements

Repetition

Repeating words or phrases for emphasis

Idiom

Expression with nonliteral meaning

Antithesis

Contrasting opposing ideas in parallel

Tone

Attitude of the narrator, speaker, or author

Mood

Emotion evoked in the audience

Diction

Author's deliberate word choice

Alliteration

Repeating initial sounds in words

Assonance

Repeating vowel sounds

Consonance

Repeating consonant sounds

Onomatopoeia

Words imitating sounds

Periphrasis

Substituting a descriptive phrase for a precise word

Pun

Deliberate confusion of words based on sound

Malapropism

Unconscious misuse of words

Wordplay

Serious use of puns

Repetition, Parallelism, Contrast, Antithesis

Devices for logic and symmetry

Anaphora

Repetition of words at the beginning of units

Double Epithet

Two words of similar meaning joined

Hendiadys

Two words joined by a conjunction where one modifies the other

Transposition

Rearranging word order for effect

Apostrophe

Direct address of an abstraction or absent entity