Rhetorical devices 27

Cacophony

Harsh discordant sounds.

Assonance

Repetition of internal vowel sounds.

Consonance

Repetition of internal consonant sounds.

Synecdoche

Parts to represent a whole.

Hyperbole

Extreme exaggeration.

Oxymoron

Words that contain opposites of themselves.

Parallel Structure

Pattern of sentences that create rhythm.

Paradox

Praise that contradicts itself.

Allusion

Reference to a well known thing by the public.

Isocolon

Parallelism that uses syllable length creates rhythm in multiple clauses.

Juxtaposition

Placement of 2 unlike things side by side to create contrast.

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word at the beginning of a clause.

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions within a list or set.

Polysyndeton

Use of conjunction between every item within a set or list.

Litotes

Specific understatement that describes by what the word isn't.

Antithesis

A pair of statements or images that reverse each other.

Apostrophe

Addresses someone/something that is not there because it died.

Ellipsis

Omission of words that does not take away from the overall meaning.

Kenning

Replaces an ordinary noun with a metaphor.

Metonymy

Replaces words with related words.

Zeugma

One verb that serves as 2 clauses with completely different meanings.

Aphorism

Simple statement used to illustrate a commonly held belief.

Anadiplosis

Beginning a clause with the same words as the previous line.

Chiasmus

A rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures.