Rhetorical Terms Flashcards
Onomatepeia
A play on the sound of words
Ex. The bee buzzed in front of my face.
Pun
A Play on Words
Simile
Uses like or as to compare two different ideas and make them sound similar.
“My love is like a fever, burning me up”
Metaphor
Is an implied comparison, doesn’t use like or as.
“My love is a fever burning me up”
Analogy
A comparison that sets up a proportional relationship.
“If knowledge is a tree, the different fields of knowledge are its branches.”
Personification
Using human qualities to describe abstract ideas or things.
Allegories
Are extended comparisons with abstract ideas that are personified by human characters
Fables
Are short allegorical stories that point out a lesson or moral; Characters are usually animals with human qualities.
Metonoymy
A figure of speech in which one phrase is substituted for another whit which it is closely associated.
Th Crown instead of royalty
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole
“All hands on deck”
Apposition
A word or phrase used to add more detail to a sentence
“Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States,”
Epiphet
When an a single word adjective is added to portray a specific trait
“Alexander the Great”
Hyperbole
When a phrase is over exaggerated to the extreme
“A billion people were at the concert last night”
Understatement
When a phrase understates something
“As tiny as a mouse”
Euphism
Using and explicit term rather than the polite version
“I need to urinate” instead of “I need to use the restroom”
Paradox
obviously contradictory but on some level true.
“Whoever humbles himself as a this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”
Oxymoron
Using two contradictory words in the same clause
“bittersweet emotions” “Cheerful pessimist”
Parallelism
The repetition of the same type of speech or grammatical form over many sentences.
“Of the people, by the people, for the people,”
Ellipsis
Not using a word that is obviously there
“Some like their hamburgers with ketchup, some with mustard.”
Antithesis
Using parallelism to repeat contradictory statements
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
Exclamation
An abrupt interruption of a sentence that addresses someone who may or may not be there..
“I am speaking foolishly”
Parenthesis
An interruption that sparks a new idea.
“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled…”
Double Entenre
A Sexual Play on Words
Logos
Appealing to the readers logical thinking
