Figures of Speech

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of similar sounds usually consonants at the beginning of consecutive words or words in close proximity

Question 2

Apostrophe

Answer 2

Direct address to absent or dead person or to an object quality or idea

Question 3

Assonance

Answer 3

Repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of consecutive words or words and close proximity: “All day the wind breathes low and with mellower tone”

Question 4

Cacophony

Answer 4

Clash of discordant were harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase

Question 5

Chiasmus

Answer 5

Two phrases in which the syntax is the same but the placement of words is reversed

Question 6

Cliché

Answer 6

An expression used so frequently it has lost it’s expressive power

Question 7

Colloquialism

Answer 7

In formal expression or slaying especially in the context of more formal text

Question 8

Euphemism

Answer 8

Use of decorous language to express vulgar or unpleasant ideas

Question 9

Euphony

Answer 9

Pleasing arrangement of sounds

Question 10

Hyperbole

Answer 10

Excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact

Question 11

Idiom

Answer 11

Common expression that has acquired a meaning different from its literal meaning

Question 12

litotes

Answer 12

A form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its opposite: “he is not unfriendly “

Question 13

Metaphor

Answer 13

Direct comparison: “life is but a walking shadow, a poor player”

Question 14

Mixed metaphor

Answer 14

A combination of direct comparisons that produces a confused or contradictory image: “a stitch in time gathers no moss”

Question 15

Metonymy

Answer 15

Substitution of one term for another generally associated term

Question 16

Onomatopoeia

Answer 16

Words that sound like what they are: “pop, hiss, and boing “

Question 17

Oxymoron

Answer 17

Association of two directly contradictory terms in a single expression

Question 18

Paradox

Answer 18

A statement which seems absurd or contradictory on the surface but, on closer examination, expresses a deeper truth

Question 19

Paralipsis

Answer 19

The technique of drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it

Question 20

Parallelism

Answer 20

Use of similar grammatical structures, word order in two sentences or phrases, lines of poetry, or elements in a narrative to suggest a comparison or contrast

Question 21

Personification

Answer 21

use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas

Question 22

Pun

Answer 22

A play on words that exploits the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different meanings

Question 23

Rhetorical question

Answer 23

A question designed not to elicit a response, But instead to make an impact or call attention to something

Question 24

Sarcasm

Answer 24

A simple form of verbal irony designed to wound, used as expression of scorn

Question 25

Simile

Answer 25

And indirect comparison between two things, using like or as

Question 26

Synesthesia

Answer 26

Confusion of the senses, using one kind of sensory experience to describe another

Question 27

Synecdoche

Answer 27

Using a part to refer to the whole, as a form of metonymy