A consise saying that’s used to express a customary truth; they are often used to communicate negative connotations
ex: Imitation is the highest form of flattery
ex: Insomnia is the mind’s revenge for all the thoughts we forgot to have in the day

Hypophora

a figure of speech where a writer raises a question and then immediately answers it
ex: Thirty-one cakes, dampened with whiskey, bask on window sills and shelves. Who are they for? Friends.
ex: What does he do for work? He’s a carpenter.

Litotes

An understatement that is made by stating the negative of the contrary of an affirmative statement
ex: You can’t say I didn’t warn you (I warned you/told you so)
ex: He is no prince charming (hes not attractive)

Antithesis

Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure
ex: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
ex: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

Didactic

A rhetorical device meant to inform and educate the audience on a moral story
ex: We’ll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning, he said, putting his arm around the youth, “Nobody believes a liar… even when he is telling the truth.”

Polysyndenton

When a conjunction is present numberous times to connect two or more ideas together in a sentance to make them of equal importance
ex: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor glom of nigh stays these couriers
ex: It was four o’clock in the afternoon and the kitchen was square and grey and quiet.

Asyndeton

the absense of a conjunction between parts of a sentance
ex: Veni, vidi, vici (translates to; I came, I saw, I conquered)

Syntax

An arrangement of join words that can form a well worded sentence structure, phrases, or clauses
ex: people generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for
ex: … stopped again, paused, struck out time afresh, formed into lines with the ;klkqerlkfjqejrgu

Euphemism

A polite expression that is used to refer to concepts that are upsetting to talk about
ex: passed away (died)
ex: You’re being let go (you’re fired)

Anadiplosis

A device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentance, or line is repeated at the beginning of the next

ex: our doubt is out passion, our passion is our task

ex: by holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here. I beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you!

Metonymy

The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant

ex: Rages to riches

ex: the pen is mightier than the sword

Anaphora

is the repeating of words or expressions at the beginning of the sentences in a group of sentences, clauses, or poetic lines

ex: Go big or go home

ex: You may shoot me with you words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with you’re hatefulness, but still, like air, I will rise.

Allusion