figures of speech Flashcards
paranomasia
the word that have multiple meanings or sound alike (denial aint the river in egypt)
double entandre
phrase understood two ways, mostly sexual
zeugma
same word joins two parts of a sentence, literally and metaforically
apostrophe
sudden turn from the audience to adress a person or something, usually absent (death, be not proud)
exclamation
sudden turn from the audience but not a direct adress (my love sprung only from my hate)
retorical question
no answer is required
oxymoron
descriptive phrase combing two terms that seem mutually exclusive
paradox
an apparently contradictory (no news is good news)
hyperbole
exaggeration (haven’t seen you in ages)
meiosis
degrading epithet, belittlement
litotes
denying the opposite (not very clever)
irony
conveying the opposite meaning of the literal definition
sarcasm
heavy verbal irony, mocking
euphemism
substitution of something offensive for non-offensive ( he passed away)
periphrasis
replacement of a single word by several which together have the same meaning
allusion
a short informal reference
synestesia
using one sense to provoke another
parallelism
similarity of structure (I went, I talked, i slept and went)
antithesis
contrasting relationship between two ideas
climax
arrangement of words in order to create a power
anti-climax
building is cut before reaching the climax
pleonasm/tavtology
the same idea is repeated (our bar isn’t open now because it is closed)
hyperbation
inversion of customary word order
epizeuxis
immediate repetition
anaphora
repetition at the begining
epiphora
repetition at the end
symploche
combination of anaphora and epiphora
epanalepsis
repetition at the beginning and at the end
anadiplosis
repetition of the last word at the beginning of the next
polyptoton
repetition of the word derivated from the same root
chiasmus
the idea in a reverse order
refrain
repetition of a phrase
polysyndeton
repetition of the conjunctions
asyndeton
lack of conjunctions
aposiopesis
deletion of an important word
ellipsis
words left out on purpose