English 3 Vocab-Tropes

Front 1

pun

Back 1

the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

Front 2

oxymoron

Back 2

a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”.

Front 3

personification

Back 3

the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.

Front 4

verbal irony

Back 4

irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning.

Front 5

simile

Back 5

a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose.”.
Compare met

Front 6

litotes

Back 6

understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”.

Front 7

metaphor

Back 7

a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”.

Front 8

rhetorical question

Back 8

a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”.

Front 9

hyperbole

Back 9

an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”.

Front 10

paradox

Back 10

a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.