Figures of Speech Definitions Flashcards
Allusion
An indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place or artistic work that the author assumes the reader will understand
Anachronism
An event, object, custom, person or thing that is out of its natural order of time
Analogy
A comparison of similar things, often to explain something unfamiliar with something familiar
Aphorism
A terse statement of a principal or truth; a maxim
Apostrophe
A rhetorical device in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or an inanimate object or abstraction
Cliche
Any expression that has been used so often it has lost its freshness
Epigram
Any terse, witty, pointed saying
Euphemism
The substitution of a mild term for one more offensive or hurtful
Figurative language
Language that contains figures of speech, such as metaphor, simile, personification, etc
Hyperbole
Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis in a figure of speech not meant literally
Kenning
A metaphoric compound word or phrase used a synonym for a common noun
Litotes
A figure of speech by which an affirmation is made indirectly by saying its opposite, usually with an effect of understatement
Malapropism
The comic substitution of one word for another similar in sound, but quite different in meaning
Metaphor
The most important and widespread figure of speech in which one thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea, or action, so as to suggest some common qualities shared by the two
Metonymy
Figure of speech in which a representative term is used for a larger idea
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to
Oxymoron
A figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression
Personification
The technique by which animals, abstract ideas, or inanimate objects are referred to as if they were human.
Proverb
A short saying that expresses some commonplace truth or bit of folk wisdom
Pun
A form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings
Simile
A less direct metaphor, using like or as
Syllogism
A form of logical reasoning, consisting of two premises and a conclusion
Synaesthesia
The description of one kind of sensation in terms of another
Synecdode
Figure of speech that utilizes a part as representative of the whole
Tautology
Repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase or sentence
Understatement
A type of verbal irony in which something is purposely represented as being far less important
Zeugma
A figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (or in a literal and figurative sense)
