English words

Alliteration

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase.

Allusion

A figure of speech in which an object or circumstance from an unrelated context is referred to directly or indirectly.

Ambiguity

Doubtfulness or uncertainty in regards to interpretation

Antecedent

Going before or proceeding to another.

Conceit

A long, elaborate, and sometimes strained, comparison between two things that seemly share no similarities.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used to create emphasis or for effect.

Irony

An expression marked by its deliberate contrast between its apparent and intended meaning; an incongruity between what was expected and what actually happens.

Simile

A comparison between two dissimilar things that uses the words like or as.

Metaphor

A comparison between two dissimilar things that does not use the words “like” or “as.”

Paradox

logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation

Personification

To give human characteristics to nonhuman things.

Symbol

a reference (written, audible, visual) hinting at something else, usually something abstract, such as an idea or belief

or

an object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings.

Understatement

a literary device by which a particular quality of a person, object, emotion, or situation is downplayed or presented as being less than what is true to the situation.