Tropes

Question 1

anthimeria

Answer 1

Anthimeria has originated from the Greek word anti-meros, which means “one part for another.” It is a rhetorical device that uses a word in a new grammatical shape, often as a noun or a verb.

Question 2

metonymy

Answer 2

the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the turf for horse racing.

Question 3

synecdoche

Answer 3

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in England lost by six wickets (meaning ‘ the English cricket team’).

Question 4

antiphrasis

Answer 4

Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device where one person says the words or phrase opposite to what message they are trying to convey. When doing so, the intended meaning is presented in an obvious fashion, so that it is evident to the listener what the speaker’s true intention is.

Question 5

hyperbole

Answer 5

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Question 6

meiosis

Answer 6

In literature, however, meiosis describes the use of understatement to highlight a point, or explain a situation, or to understate a response used to enhance the effect of a dramatic moment.

Question 7

paronomasia

Answer 7

a play on words; a pun.

Question 8

polyptoton

Answer 8

Polyptoton is the repetition of a root word in a variety of ways, such as the words “enjoy” and “enjoyable,” and the present and past forms of the word “read” in the opening sentence. The word polyptoton is derived from the Greek phrase polyptōton meaning “many cases.”.

Question 9

syllepsis

Answer 9

a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others of which it grammatically suits only one (e.g. neither they nor it is working ).

Miss Bolo “went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan chair.” Such uses are humorously incongruous, but they’re not grammatically incorrect

Question 10

zeugma

Answer 10

a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g. John and his driving licence expired last week ).

Question 11

ploce

Answer 11

A ploce is a figure of speech in which a word is separated or repeated by way of emphasis; the repetition of a word functions as a different part of speech or in different contexts.

emphatic repetition of a word with particular reference to its special significance (as in ‘a wife who was a wife indeed’).

Question 12

alleotheta

Answer 12

Alleotheta involves substitution of one case, gender, mood, number, tense, or person for another.

Question 13

antimetabole

Answer 13

Antimetabole is a literary and rhetorical device in which a phrase or sentence is repeated, but in reverse order. Writers or speakers use antimetabole for effect-calling attention to the words, or demonstrating that reality is not always what it seems by using the reversal of words.

“I know what I like, and I like what I know”. It is related to, and sometimes considered a special case of, chiasmus.

Question 14

chiasmus

Answer 14

a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.

Question 15

isocolon

Answer 15

Isocolon is a rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases, and clauses of grammatically equal length. In this figure of speech, a sentence has a parallel structure that is made up of words, clauses, or phrases of equal length, sound, meter, and rhythm.

Question 16

anadiplosis

Answer 16

Anadiplosis is the literary term for a rhetorical device in which a writer or speaker uses a word near the end of the clause and then repeats that word to begin the next clause. Anadiplosis is used to bring attention to a specific thing or concept.

Question 17

anaphora

Answer 17

1) repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
2) the use of a word referring back to a word used earlier in a text or conversation, to avoid repetition, for example the pronouns he, she, it, and they and the verb do in I like it and so do they.

Question 18

epistrophe

Answer 18

an epistrophe is repeating words at the clauses’ ends.

Question 19

symploce

Answer 19

In rhetoric, symploce is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used successively at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences and another word or phrase with a similar wording is used successively at the end of them. It is the combination of anaphora and epistrophe.

Question 20

epizeuxis

Answer 20

an epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, typically within the same sentence, for vehemence or emphasis.

Question 21

Repetitio

Answer 21

Repetitio simply means ‘repetition’ and is a general term for repeating a single word or variants of the same word

Question 22

Polysyndeton

Answer 22

Polysyndeton is a literary technique in which conjunctions (e.g. and, but, or) are used repeatedly in quick succession, often with no commas, even when the conjunctions could be removed.

Question 23

asyndeton

Answer 23

the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence, as in I came, I saw, I conquered.

Question 24

ellipsis

Answer 24

the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

“it is very rare for an ellipsis to occur without a linguistic antecedent”

Question 25

anastrophe

Answer 25

the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses.

Question 26

hyperbaton

Answer 26

an inversion of the normal order of words, especially for the sake of emphasis, as in the sentence ‘ this I must see ’.

Question 27

anacoluthon

Answer 27

a sentence or construction in which the expected grammatical sequence is absent, for example while in the garden, the door banged shut.

Question 28

assonance

Answer 28

resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby words, arising particularly from the rhyming of two or more stressed vowels, but not consonants (e.g. sonnet, porridge ), but also from the use of identical consonants with different vowels (e.g. killed, cold, culled ).

Question 29

parechesis

Answer 29

Parechesis: The repetition of a sound in adjacent or nearby words

Question 30

paramoiosis

Answer 30

adjacent or parallel words have similarly sounding endings

Question 31

metaplasm

Answer 31

A metaplasm is generic term for almost any kind of alteration, whether intentional or unintentional, in the pronunciation or the orthography of a word.

Question 32

enumeration

Answer 32

the action of mentioning a number of things one by one.

Question 33

antanagoge

Answer 33

An antanagoge is a figure in rhetoric, in which, not being able to answer the accusation of an adversary, a person instead makes a counter-allegation or counteracting an opponent’s proposal with an opposing proposition in one’s own speech or writing.

Question 34

prolepsis

Answer 34

1) the anticipation and answering of possible objections in rhetorical speech.
2) the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in he was a dead man when he entered.

Question 35

hypotyposis

Answer 35

A vivid, picturesque description of scenes or events.

Question 36

exergasia

Answer 36

Exergasia is a form of parallelism where one idea is repeated and only the way it is stated is changed.

Question 37

apposition

Answer 37

1) the positioning of things side by side or close together.
2) a relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent (e.g. the first US president, George Washington).

Question 38

periphrasis

Answer 38

1) the usage of multiple separate words to carry the meaning of prefixes, suffixes or verbs, among other things, where either would be possible
2) the use of indirect and circumlocutory speech or writing.

Question 39

systrophe

Answer 39

The listing of many qualities or descriptions of someone or something, without providing an explicit definition.

Question 40

epimone

Answer 40

Epimone (pronounced eh-PIM-o-nee) is a rhetorical term for the frequent repetition of a phrase or question; dwelling on a point.

Question 41

exemplum

Answer 41

an example or model, especially a story told to illustrate a moral point.

Question 42

Antitheton

Answer 42

Antitheton is a literary device whose composition deals with contrasting thoughts by which contraries are set in opposition to each other. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with antithesis

Question 43

Syncrisis

Answer 43

Syncrisis is a rhetorical figure or exercise in which opposite persons or things are compared, usually in order to evaluate their relative worth. Syncrisis is a type of antithesis. Plural: syncrises.

Question 44

aphorism

Answer 44

An aphorism is a concise, terse, laconic, and/or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. They are often handed down by tradition from generation to generation.

Question 45

aporia

Answer 45

an irresolvable internal contradiction or logical disjunction in a text, argument, or theory.

Question 46

prosopopoeia

Answer 46

a figure of speech in which an abstract thing is personified.

Question 47

apostrophe

Answer 47

an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person (typically one who is dead or absent) or thing (typically one that is personified).

Question 48

apoplanesis

Answer 48

Promising to address the issue but effectively dodging it through a digression.

Question 49

synchoresis

Answer 49

A concession made for the purpose of retorting with greater force.

the act or an instance of conceding an argument in order to make a stronger one

Question 50

Anacoenosis

Answer 50

a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question to an audience in a way that demonstrates a common interest.

Question 51

erotesis

Answer 51

The figure of speech known as erotesis is a rhetorical question implying strong affirmation or denial.

Question 52

metanoia

Answer 52

change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion.

Question 53

aposiopesis

Answer 53

Aposiopesis is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue. An example would be the threat “Get out, or else—!”