Rhetorical Devices

Question 0

Isocolon

Answer 0

Scheme of parallel structure which occurs when the parallel elements are similar in grammatical structure and length. (Number of words or syllables)

Question 1

Parallelism

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Antithesis

Answer 2

Use of contrasting ideas, may be in words or ideas or both. Counter opposites.

Question 3

Anastrophe

Answer 3

Inversion of the natural or usual word order. (Yoda)

Question 4

Parenthesis

Answer 4

Insertion of a verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow. (Uses parenthesis)

Question 5

Apposition

Answer 5

Placing side by side two coordinate elements, the second explains the first clause further.

Question 6

Ellipsis

Answer 6

Deliberate omission of a word or words which are implied by context. (Uses …)

Question 7

Asyndeton

Answer 7

Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses.

Question 8

Brachylogia

Answer 8

Subcategory of Asyndeton used in Tudor period. Omits conjunctions between single words or phrases.

Question 9

Polysyndeton

Answer 9

Deliberate use of many conjunctions.

Question 10

Alliteration

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Assonance

Answer 11

Repetition of similar vowel sounds.

Question 12

Anaphora

Answer 12

Repetition of same word or group of words at beginning of successive clauses.

Question 13

Epistrophe

Answer 13

Repetition of the same word or group if words at end of successive clauses.

Question 14

Epanalepsis

Answer 14

Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.

Question 15

Anadiplosis

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Antimetabole

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Chiasmus

Answer 17

(Criss cross) reversal of grammatical structures in successive clauses or phrases.

Question 18

Polyptoton

Answer 18

Repetition of words derived from same root.

Question 19

Climax

Answer 19

Arrangement of words or phrases in increasing importance

Question 20

Apostrophe

Answer 20

Figure of speech in which someone, some quality, or non-existent person is addressed as if there.

Question 21

Antanaclasis

Answer 21

Repetition of a word in two different senses.

Question 22

Anthimeria

Answer 22

Substitution of one part of speech for another

Question 23

Enjambment/Emjambement

Answer 23

Incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one line to the next without break

Question 24

Hyperbole

Answer 24

Use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect

Question 25

Irony

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Litotes

Answer 26

Deliberate use of an understatement

Question 27

Metaphor

Answer 27

Implied comparison between two things of unlike nature

Question 28

Metonymy

Answer 28

Substitution of some attribute or suggestive word for what is actually meant

Question 29

Onomatopoeia

Answer 29

Use of words whose sound echoes the sense.

Question 30

Oxymoron

Answer 30

Yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory

Question 31

Paradox

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Paronomasia

Answer 32

Use of words alike in sound but different in meaning.

Question 33

Periphrasis

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Personification

Answer 34

Investing abstractions or inanimate objects. Giving life to inanimate objects

Question 35

Simile

Answer 35

Explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature. Uses like or as

Question 36

Syllepsis/Zeugma

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Synecdoche

Answer 37

Figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole

Question 38

Synesthesia

Answer 38

Word usage that stretches across senses. (Ex. Bitter wind, loud shirt)