Unit 1/ Vocab 3: More Rhetorical Terms

Question 1

Paranomasis

Answer 1

Use of words alike in sound but different in meaning

Question 2

Dramatic irony

Answer 2

A type of irony in which facts or events are unknown to a character but are known to the reader, audience, or other character

Question 3

Syllepsis

Answer 3

Repeating a word, meaning something different each time (“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”)

Question 4

Antanaclasis

Answer 4

A construction in which one word is used in two different senses (After he threw the ball; he threw a fit.)

Question 5

Prosopopoeia

Answer 5

A rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object

Question 6

Polyptoton

Answer 6

The repetition of words derived from the same root (“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”)

Question 7

Anastrophe

Answer 7

The reversal of the normal order of words (also called inversion)

Question 8

Metonymy

Answer 8

A type of metaphor in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it (“The White House declared . . . “)

Question 9

Anadiplosis

Answer 9

Repetition of the final words of a sentence or line at the beginning of the next

Question 10

Periphrasis

Answer 10

Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a name (“fickle mistress” for luck; “big man in the sky” for God)

Question 11

Thesis

Answer 11

The sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition

Question 12

Synesthesia

Answer 12

Describing one kind of sensation in terms of another (“a loud color” or “a sweet sound”)

Question 13

Anthimeria

Answer 13

Using one part of speech to act as another, such as adjective for noun or noun for verb (“We partied last night” - noun as verb; our use of the word “speeching”)

Question 14

Sarcasm

Answer 14

Bitter, caustic language designed to hurt or ridicule someone or something

Question 15

Apposition

Answer 15

A grammatical relation between a word and a noun phrase that follows it

Question 16

Situational irony

Answer 16

A type of irony in which events turn out the opposite of what was expected

Question 17

Symbol

Answer 17

Anything that represents or stands for something else

Question 18

Epanalepsis

Answer 18

Repetition at the end of a clause or line of the word that occurred at the beginning (within the same line, phrase, clause, sentence)

Question 19

Anachronism

Answer 19

Something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

Question 20

Epistrophe

Answer 20

Repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect -opposite of anaphora

Question 21

Trope

Answer 21

Language used in a figurative or non-literal sense

Question 22

Verbal irony

Answer 22

A type of irony in which the words literally stated are the opposite of the writer’s true meaning

Question 23

Simile

Answer 23

A comparison using like or as

Question 24

Apostrophe

Answer 24

When a speaker addresses someone/something that is not there