rhetorical devices Flashcards
anaphora
Repeating a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses of sentence. (You
will get up, you will come here and you will listen to me.)
anadiplosis
Repetition of the last word or clause to start the next. (I will rise tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will stand proud)
antanaclasis
Repeating a word or phrase in a sentence and changing the meaning of the
word. (We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.)
antithesis
Balanced use of opposites in successive clauses or sentences.
commoration
Repeating an idea using different words. (He’s dead. He’s diseased. He’s gone to
the other side.)
diacope
Repetition broken up by one or more intervening words. (I hate to be poor. We
are degradingly poor, offensively poor, miserably poor.)
ecphonesis
A rhetorical term for an exclamation expressing strong emotion. (Great Scott,
I’ve found it!)
epimone
Repeating or dwelling on a topic. (Are you talking to me? Who are you talking
to? To me?)
epiphora
Repeating a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences. (In the
morning you complain. In the evening you complain. Even when you’re asleep
you complain.)
epizeuxis
Repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis, usually with no words between.
(Yummy, yummy, yum, yum, yum.)
erotesis
A strong rhetorical question implying strong affirmation or denial.
hendiadys
A figure of speech in which two words joined by “and” express an idea that is
more commonly expressed by an adjective and a noun. (A tale told by an idiot
full of sound and fury).
hypophora
Questions that are raised and then immediately answered in the next sentence.
litotes
A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is
expressed by negating it opposite. (Not small was his anger, nor few his
enemies)
meiosis
To belittle or use a degrading epithet often through a trope of one word. (Grease
monkey = mechanic)
polyptoton
Repetition of words derived from the same root with different endings.
(Popularity is an obvious desire to be obviously desired.)
prolepsis
Foreseeing or predicting and forestalling objections to an issue. (I know that
you’re thinking this, but…)
tricolon
List of three words, clauses or statements. (The right of life, liberty and freedom.)
ethos
Establishing character and credentials in order to have the grounds to persuade.
(As a previous recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize, I urge you to read my new book.)
logos
Using facts and logic. Demonstrating the truth. (Just last week, scientists
finished the third clinical trial on this new drug where it had an 89% success
rate.)
pathos
Appealing to emotions. (The animals are subjected to excruciating and barbaric
torture during testing.)
