Rhetorical Device Flash Cards

Question 1

Schemes of Construction/Syntax

Answer 1

Deviation from the ordinary pattern or arrangement of words (transference of order).

Question 2

Parallelism

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Isocolon

Answer 3

A scheme of parallel structure that occurs when the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length.

Question 4

Antithesis

Answer 4

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure.

Question 5

Anastrophe

Answer 5

The inversion of natural word order.

Question 6

Parenthesis

Answer 6

Insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence.

Question 7

Apposition

Answer 7

Placing side-by-side two coordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation or modification of the first.

Question 8

Ellipsis

Answer 8

Deliberate omission of a word or of words that are readily implied by the context.

Question 9

Asyndeton

Answer 9

Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of words, phrases, or clauses.

Question 10

Polysyndeton

Answer 10

Deliberate use of many conjunctions (does not involve omission, but is grouped with its opposite, asyndeton).

Question 11

Alliteration

Answer 11

Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words.

Question 12

Assonance

Answer 12

The repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.

Question 13

Anaphora

Answer 13

Repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginnings of successive phrases.

Question 14

Epistrophe

Answer 14

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive phrases.

Question 15

Epanalepsis

Answer 15

Repetition of the same word or words at both beginning and ending of a phrase, clause, or sentence.

Question 16

Anadiplosis

Answer 16

Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Question 17

Climax

Answer 17

Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Question 18

Antimetabole

Answer 18

Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.

Question 19

Chiasmus

Answer 19

Reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses.

Question 20

Polyptoton

Answer 20

Repetition of words derived from the same root.

Question 21

Common Tropes

Answer 21

Deviation from the ordinary and principal meaning of a word (transference of meaning).

Question 22

Metaphor

Answer 22

Implied comparison between two things of unlike nature.

Question 23

Simile

Answer 23

Explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature, usually using “like” or “as”.

Question 24

Synecdoche

Answer 24

Figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole.

Question 25

Metonymy

Answer 25

Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant.

Question 26

Antanaclasis

Answer 26

Repetition of a word or phrase whose meaning changes in the second instance.

Question 27

Personification

Answer 27

Investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities.

Question 28

Apostrophe

Answer 28

A term used when a speaker directly addresses someone or something that isn’t present. The speaker could be addressing an abstract concept like love, a person (dead or alive), a place, or even a thing, like the sun or the sea.

Question 29

Hyperbole

Answer 29

The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

Question 30

Litotes

Answer 30

Deliberate use of understatement.

Question 31

Rhetorical Question

Answer 31

Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but to assert or deny an answer implicitly.

Question 32

Irony

Answer 32

Use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word.

Question 33

Onomatapoeia

Answer 33

Use of words whose sound echoes the sense.

Question 34

Oxymoron

Answer 34

The joining of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory.

Question 35

Paradox

Answer 35

An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth.

Question 36

Paronamasia

Answer 36

Use of words alike in sound but different in meaning (pun).

Question 37

Syllepsis

Answer 37

Use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs.

Question 38

Anthimeria

Answer 38

The substitution of one part of speech for another.

Question 39

Periphrasis (autonomasia)

Answer 39

The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name.

Question 40

Allusion

Answer 40

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers.