Principal Rhetorical and Literary Devices

Question 1

alliteration

Answer 1

repetition of the same letter at the beginning of words or syllables

Question 2

anaphora

Answer 2

the repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis

Question 3

anastrophe

Answer 3

inversion of usual word order (e.g., preposition after the word it governs)

Question 4

aposiopesis

Answer 4

breaking off in the middle of a sentence

Question 5

apostrophe

Answer 5

addressing a person who is not present

Question 6

asyndeton

Answer 6

omission of conjunctions

Question 7

chiasmus

Answer 7

“a-b-b-a” arrangement of words

Question 8

ellipsis

Answer 8

omission of words

Question 9

hendiadys

Answer 9

use of two nouns together to express a noun modified by an adjective

Question 10

hyperbole

Answer 10

exaggeration

Question 11

hysteron proteron

Answer 11

placing first what the reader might expect to come last

Question 12

litotes

Answer 12

use of a negative to express a strong positive

Question 13

metaphor

Answer 13

expression of meaning through an image

Question 14

metonymy

Answer 14

substitution of one word for another that it suggests

Question 15

onomatopoeia

Answer 15

use of words that sound like their meaning

Question 16

oxymoron

Answer 16

use of an apparent contradiction

Question 17

personification

Answer 17

attribution of human characteristics to something not human

Question 18

pleonasm

Answer 18

use of superfluous words

Question 19

polysyndeton

Answer 19

use of many conjunctions

Question 20

prolepsis

Answer 20

(anticipation)

use of a word sooner than it would logically appear

Question 21

simile

Answer 21

comparison using a word like “sicut”, “similis”, or “velut”

Question 22

synecdoche

Answer 22

use of a part to express a whole

Question 23

tmesis

Answer 23

the separation of a compound word into two parts

Question 24

tricolon crescens

Answer 24

(ascending tricolon)

combination of three elements, increasing in size

Question 25

zeugma

Answer 25

use of one word in two different sense simultaneously