Figurative Language Devices Set I Flashcards
A comparison of two unlike things using connecting words such as “like,” “as,” “so,” “than,” or a verb such as “resemble.”
Simile
examples: She eats like a bird; The snow was as soft as cotton; He is as busy as a bee.
An implied or hidden comparison between to unlike things without using comparison or connecting words
Metaphor
examples: He is a beast in the weight room; the assignment was a breeze; He drowned in a sea of grief.
A phrase in which the words together have a meaning that is different from the literal meaning of words.
Idiom
examples: Every cloud has a silver lining; It drives me up a wall; play our cards right.
A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea, or an animal is given human attributes.
Personification
examples: The wind whispered; Her stomach growled; the stars danced in the sky.
Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.
Hyperbole
examples: He weighs a ton; dying of shame; I am so hungry I could eat a horse; His brain is the size of a pea.
A story in which the characters represent abstract qualities or ideas.
Allegory
examples: In westerns, the sheriff represents the good, and the outlaw represents the evil. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a religious allegory with Aslan as Christ and Edmund as Judas.
The repetition of the first constants in a group of words.
Alliteration
examples: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” “She sells seashells by the seashore.”
A reference to something or someone often literary.
Allusion
examples: If you were trying to instill confidence in a friend and said “use the force: that would be an allusion to Star Wars.
A major character who opposes the protagonist (good guy) in a story or play.
Antagonist
examples: Lord Voldemort is the antagonist in the Harry Potter Series.
A character who represents a certain type of person.
Archetype
examples: Daniel Boone is an archetype of the early American frontiersman. (like the road runner and the coyote)
Repetition of vowel sounds in the middle words.
Assonance
examples: Days Wane away (long a) I hope you succeed (long e)
The means by which an author establishes characters.
Direct: the author tells us
Indirect: the author shows us by other character’s thoughts, actions, or words.
Characterization
examples: Direct: Jane was an awful person
Indirect: “As Jane walked by the box labeled ‘free puppies,’ she glanced around her, then gave the box a swift kick.
The point at which the action in a story or play reaches it’s emotional peak.
Climax
examples: Rainsford jumps off the escape the General Zaroff.
A struggle between two opposing forces usually a protagonist and an antagonist. Can be internal or external.
Conflict examples: person vs technology person vs nature person vs self person vs society person vs supernatural
When a person has lines ending with words that sound the same.
End Rhyme
examples: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.
