Schemes + Tropes

Scheme

A change in standard word order or pattern.

Trope

The use of a word, phrase, or image in a way not intended by its normal signification.

Parallelism

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses, emphasizing similarities.

Antithesis

Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas or words, often in parallel structure.

Climax

Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance.

Inversion

Rearrangement of usual word order for effect of emphasis or to maintain meter.

Parenthesis

Insertion of verbal unit that interrupts the normal flow of the sentence, adding emotion.

Apposition

Juxtaposing two noun phrases where one defines or modifies the other.

Ellipsis

Deliberate omission of a word or words readily implied by context.

Asyndeton

Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses.

Polysyndeton

Deliberate use of many conjunctions, suggesting flow or emphasis.

Anaphora

Deliberate repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.

Epistrophe

Deliberate repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive clauses.

Epanalepsis

Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning.

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word from one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Chiasmus

Repetition of grammatical structures in an inverted order.

Antimetabole

Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order.

Metaphor

Implied comparison between two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'.

Simile

Explicit comparison between two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'.

Pun

A figure making a play on words with similar or identical spelling but different meanings.

Zeugma

One verb controls two or more objects with different relations.

Personification

Attributing human qualities to abstractions or inanimate objects.

Apostrophe

Addressing an absent person or a personified abstraction.

Verbal Irony

Implying the contrary of what one says, often for mockery.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration used for emphasis.

Understatement

Deliberately making something seem less important for ironic effect.

Rhetorical Question

Any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain information.

Onomatopoeia

Use of words whose sound echoes their meaning.

Paradox

A contradictory statement that reveals a deeper truth.

Oxymoron

Placing normally contradictory terms next to each other, producing a startling effect.