25 Rhetorical Terms

Question 1

Parallelism

Answer 1

“So Janey waited a bloom time, and a green time, and an orange time.”

Question 2

Isocolon

Answer 2

type of parallel structure where it is grammatically similar and in length (number of words or even syllables)
“His purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous.”

Question 3

Antithesis

Answer 3

juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, usually in parallel structure
“What if I am rich, and another is poor- strong, and he is weak- intelligent, and he is benighted-elevated, and he is depraved?”

Question 4

Anastrophe

Answer 4

inversion of word order

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Question 5

Paranthesis

Answer 5

adding a comment into a sentence (interrupts in some way)
““He said he supervised ten editors-another euphemism- in his department, which clears 90% of NBC’s entertainment programming.”

Question 6

Ellipsis

Answer 6

Deliberate omission of a word/phrase

“And he to England shall along with you.”

Question 7

Asyndeton

Answer 7

no conjunctions

“I came, I saw, I conquered.”

Question 8

Polysyndeton

Answer 8

uses many conjunctions

“We lived and laughed and loved and left.”

Question 9

Alliteration

Answer 9

repetition of first or second letters of words

“My style is Public negotiations for Parity, rather than Private negotiations for Position.”

Question 10

Assonance

Answer 10

repetition of similar vowel sounds

“The gloves didn’t fit. If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

Question 11

Anaphora

Answer 11

repetition of the same words
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans…”

Question 12

Epistrophe

Answer 12

repetition of the same word or words at the end of a phrase
“As long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you tot the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled.”

Question 13

Epanalepsis

Answer 13

repetition of words or phrases at both the beginning and ends of a sentence
“A minimum wage that is not a livable wage can never be a minimum wage.”

Question 14

Anadiplosis

Answer 14

repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause
“The general who became a slave: the slave who became a gladiator.”

Question 15

Climax

Answer 15

arrangement of words or phrases in order of increasing importance
“Miss America was not so much interested in serving herself as she was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation.”

Question 16

Antimetabole

Answer 16

repetition of words in successive phrases in reverse grammatical order
“One should eat to live, not live to eat.”

Question 17

Chiasmus

Answer 17

reverse grammatical order

“It is boring to eat, to sleep is fulfilling.”

Question 18

Polyptoton

Answer 18

repetition of words derived from the same root

“But in this desert country they may see the land being rendered useless by overuse.”

Question 19

Metaphor

Answer 19

come on

Question 20

Simile

Answer 20

come on

Question 21

Synecdoche

Answer 21

part stands for the whole
The phrase “gray beard” refers to an old man.
The word “sails” refers to a whole ship.
The word “suits” refers to businessmen.

Question 22

Metonymy

Answer 22

substitution of some attribute for what is actually meant

“The pen is mightier than the sword. (Pen refers to written words and sword to military force.)”

Question 23

Antanaclasis

Answer 23

repetition of a word or phrase whose meaning changes in the second instance
“If we don’t hang together, we’ll hang separately.”

Question 24

Personification

Answer 24

come on

Question 25

Hyperbole

Answer 25

come one