Language in Composition Vocab Quiz 1

Question 1

repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence

Answer 1

alliteration

Question 2

brief reference to a person, event, or place, or to a work of art

Answer 2

allusion

Question 3

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

Answer 3

anaphora

Question 4

repetition of words in reverse order

Answer 4

antimetabole

Question 5

opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction

Answer 5

antithesis

Question 6

old-fashioned or outdated choice of words

Answer 6

archaic diction

Question 7

omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words

Answer 7

asyndeton

Question 8

sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence and then builds and adds on

Answer 8

cumulative sentence

Question 9

sentence that exhorts, urges, entreats, implores, or calls to action

Answer 9

hortative sentence

Question 10

sentence used to command or enjoin

Answer 10

imperative sentence

Question 11

inverted order of words in a sentence

Answer 11

inversion

Question 12

placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences

Answer 12

juxtaposition

Question 13

figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as

Answer 13

metaphor

Question 14

paradoxical juxtaposition of words that seem to contradict one another

Answer 14

oxymoron

Question 15

similarity of structure in a pair or series or related words, phrases, or clauses

Answer 15

parallelism

Question 16

sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end

Answer 16

periodic sentence

Question 17

attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea

Answer 17

personification

Question 18

figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer

Answer 18

rhetorical question

Question 19

figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole

Answer 19

synedoche

Question 20

use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous, meanings

Answer 20

zeugma