Rhetoric

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Allegory

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a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

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Absolute

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a word free from limitations or qualifications (“best,” “all,” “unique,” “perfect”)

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Alliteration

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the repetition of initial sounds in successive or neighboring words

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Allusion

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a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the authorassumes the reader will recognize

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Analogy

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a comparison of two different things that are similar in some way

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Anaphora

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the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive lines orsentences

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Anecdote

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a brief narrative that focuses on a particular incident or event

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Aphorism

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a concise statement that expresses succinctly a general truth or idea, oftenusing rhyme or balance

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Apostrophe

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a figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginaryperson, or some abstraction

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Chiasmus

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a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part isstructurally reversed (“Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary”)

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Colloquialism

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informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing

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Connotation

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the implied or associative meaning of a word

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Ellipsis

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the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can bededuced from the context (“Some people prefer cats; others, dogs”).

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Euphemism

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an indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant

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Exposition

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literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters etc. to the audience or readers.

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Kairos

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Kairos is timeliness, appropriateness, decorum, symmetry, balance—awareness of the rhetorical situation or "the circumstances that open moments of opportunity

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Metonymy

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

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Modes of discourse

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describe the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of language-based communication, particularly writing and speaking. Four of the most common rhetorical modes and their purpose are narration, description, exposition, and argumentation.

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Sardonic

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cynical, mocking