Figures of Speech

Question 1

alliteration

Answer 1

repetition of the same letter at the beginning of consecutive or adjacent words

Question 2

assonance

Answer 2

close recurrence of the same or similar vowel sounds at the beginning, middle, or end of words in a sentence or thought

Question 3

anaphora

Answer 3

repetition of words at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses

Question 4

onomatopoeia

Answer 4

use of words of which the sound suggests the meaning

Question 5

asyndeton

Answer 5

omission of conjunctions or connecting words

Question 6

polysyndeton

Answer 6

too many conjunctions

Question 7

chiasmus

Answer 7

arrangement of corresponding words in opposite order (ABBA)

Question 8

synchesis

Answer 8

interlocked order of words (ABAB)

Question 9

word picture

Answer 9

enclosing certain words within others to form a picture

Question 10

anastrophe

Answer 10

inversion of the usual order of words

Question 11

apostrophe

Answer 11

exclamatory address to a person or something inanimate as if it were a person

Question 12

metonymy

Answer 12

substitution of one word for another of related meaning

Question 13

synecdoche

Answer 13

use of the part for the whole

Question 14

metaphor

Answer 14

a direct comparison

Question 15

simile

Answer 15

a comparison introduced by some word such as “like” or “as”

Question 16

personification

Answer 16

endowment of inanimate objects with human attributes

Question 17

hyperbole

Answer 17

rhetorical exaggeration or an overstatement

Question 18

litotes

Answer 18

a denial implying the opposite of the statement or an understatement

Question 19

oxymoron

Answer 19

an apparent contradiction in terms

Question 20

irony

Answer 20

saying the opposite of what is really meant

Question 21

syncopated forms

Answer 21

omission of letters or syllables in words