Rhetorical Choices and Devices Flashcards
Learn the terms and definitions.
Allegory
A piece of writing that can be interpreted as having a hidden meaning that is usually a moral or political issue.
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Allusion
A reference to a different source, person, event, or thing based on the assumption the reader will know the reference and understand it.
Apposition
When words or phrases that are meant to be the same thing are placed beside each other in writing.
Anachronism
An element of a story that conflicts with the time period it was written in.
Anadiplosis
Repetition where the last word/words used in the previous clause or phrase repeats as the first word/words in the next clause or phrase.
Anaphora
The repetition of the same word/words.
Anecdote
A short and interesting narrative about a real incident or person that adds to the story.
Antanaclasis
A literary device using puns—using words or phrases that sound the same but have different meanings the second time it is used.
Antithesis
Two contrasting words, phrases, clauses, or ideas with parallel structure.
Assonance
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
Asyndeton
When conjunctions are intentionally omitted to set a specific tone in a sentence.
Chiasmus
When the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed.
Cliche
A word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse.
Connotation
Implied or secondary meaning of a word beyond its literal definition.
Epistrophe
Repetition at the end of successive clauses/sentence.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration.
Hypophora
A figure of speech where the speaker asks a question then proceeds to answer it.
Irony
When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.
Isocolon
A succession of sentences, phrases, and clauses of grammatically equal length.
Juxtaposition
Placing things side by side for the purpose of comparison.
Litote
A phrase that uses negation to create an affirmative understatement.
Metaphor
An implied comparison not using “like” or “as”.
Oxymoron
When contradictory terms are grouped together.
Paradox
A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true.
Personification
Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human.
Polyptoton
The rhetorical repetition of a word in a different case, inflection, or voice in the same sentence.
Polysyndeton
Creating a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions (and, but, or, etc.)
Repetition
Using the same word or phrase over and over again in a piece of writing or speech.
Rhetorical Question
A question asked only for effect.
Simile
Comparing using “like” or “as”.
Syllogism
A deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion.
Zeugma
When a word applies to two others in a different sense.
