Lang Terms

Alliteration

Alliteration

The repetition of the same sounds or kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables.

Allusion

When one text refers to another.

Ambiguity

Giving rise to uncertainty with regard to interpretation.

Anadiplosis

The repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next, often leading to climax.

Analogy

A form of logical inference based on the assumption that if two things are alike in some respects, then they must be alike in other respects.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Anecdote

A brief, often autobiographical story used to illustrate a point.

Antithesis

The direct or exact opposite; a figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed.

Apostrophe

The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction.

Assonance

Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be used.

Chiasmus

A type of antithesis in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed.

Connotation

The emotional or associative value of a word, apart from its dictionary meaning.

Euphemism

The act of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.

Figurative language

Any nonliteral turn in language, which can be classified into tropes and schemes.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech employing exaggeration for tactical effect.

Image

A vivid description appealing to one or more of the senses.

Irony

A figure divisible into three types:verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony.

Jargon

Technical language specific to a particular field.

Juxtaposition

Placing two unlike things side by side to highlight their differences.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, making an implicit comparison.

Metonymy

A figure of substitution in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.

Onomatopoeia

The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

Oxymoron

A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

Parallelism

The use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases.

Parody

A literary or artistic form that imitates the characteristic style of an author or work in order to ridicule it.

Personification

A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or represented as possessing human form.

Pun

A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words.

Rhetoric

Persuasive speech or language.

Rhetorical devices

Figures of speech or language used for literary or persuasive effect.

Rhetorical question

A question asked for argumentative effect.

Rhetorical strategy

The strategy or plan selected to effectively deliver the intended message in a written piece of work.

Satire

The use of irony, parody, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like to expose, denounce, or deride vice or folly.

Simile

A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared.

Symbol

Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, or the general for the specific.

Syntax

The pattern of formation of phrases or sentences.

Tone

The quality or character of sound, or the manner of expression in speech or writing.

Understatement

Restraint or lack of emphasis used for rhetorical effect.