RS Rhetoric2

Simile

Two essentially dissimilar objects or concepts expressly compared using “like” or “as.”

Personification

An idea or thing is given human attributes, qualities, or feelings, or is spoken of as if it were human.

Synecdoche

A part of something is used to signify the whole, or a smaller component represents the greater whole.

Metaphor

A comparison between two nonsimilar things that asserts they are identical rather than merely similar.

Allusion

An indirect reference to something that originates from outside the text.

Metonymy

One object or idea takes the place of another with which it has a close association.

Apostrophe

A poetic phrase or speech addressed to a subject that is not actually present.

Parallelism

The repetition of grammatical structures by matching similar sentence components.

Antithesis

Contrasting ideas expressed in parallel form.

Chiasmus

An inversion of grammatical structure, idea, or sound in an AB → BA pattern.

Tricolon

A sentence or phrase with three clearly defined parts of equal length.

Syllepsis

Two terms are linked by one word, usually a verb, that carries a different meaning for each term.

Ellipsis

The omission of a word or words that the reader can easily supply from context.

Anastrophe

A reversal of normal word order so that words appear in an unexpected order.

Anthimeria

Using one part of speech as another, such as using a noun as a verb.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of successive units.

Anadiplosis

The repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the end of one unit and the beginning of the next.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the end of successive units.

Epizeuxis

The consecutive repetition of a word with no intervening words.

Epanalepsis

The use of the same word or phrase at both the beginning and end of a sentence.

Polyptoton

The repetition of the same root word in different forms.