Rhetorical Devices Flashcards
Alliteration
Repetition of the same sound beginning several words in a sequence.
Allusion
A short, informal reference to a famous person or event.
Anaphora
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.
Antimetabole
Reversing the order of repeated words or phrases (a loosely chiastic structure, AB-BA) to intensify the final formulation, to present alternatives, to show contrast.
Antithesis
Opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.
Archaic Diction
Use of an older or obsolete form.
Asyndeton
lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.
Cumulative Sentence
A sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence, and then builds and adds on.
Hortative Sentence
A sentence to encourage and spur people on.
Imperative Sentence
Sentence used to command, enjoin, implore, or entreat.
Inversion
Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order).
Metaphor
Implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.
Metonymy
Using a single feature to represent the whole.
Oxymoron
Apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another.
Parallelism
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
Periodic Sentence
Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end.
Personification
A trope or figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.
Polysyndeton
Deliberate use of a series of conjunctions.
Rhetorical Question (Erotisis)
Differs from hypophora in that it is not answered by the writer, because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis, or provocation, or for drawing a conclusionary statement from the facts at hand.
Synechdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in “nice wheels!” referring to one’s car.
