Rhetorical Term

Front 1

Allusion

Back 1

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical cultural, literary or political significance.

Front 2

Anadiplosis

Back 2

repeating the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next clause

Front 3

Gradiatio

Back 3

extended anadiplosis

Front 4

Anastrophe (hyperbaton

Back 4

The inversion of the usual order of words or clauses

Front 5

Antithesis

Back 5

Opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other. "hatred stirs up strife, but love conquers all sins"

Front 6

aphorism

Back 6

A pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

Front 7

Apophasis

Back 7

Denial of one's intention to speak of a subject that is at the same time named or insinuated

Front 8

Aporia

Back 8

The deliberate act of talking about how one is unable to talk about something -- an expression or real or pretend doubt or uncertainty, especially for rhetorical effect.

Front 9

apostrophe

Back 9

A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech.

Front 10

cacophony/euphony

Back 10

A rhetorical device that utilizes sounds in words to create a pleasing effect; it often utilizes long vowels, or liquid/nasal consonants.

Front 11

chiasmus

Back 11

ABBA a literary device that uses a certain order of words in one clause and inverts it in the second clause.

Front 12

Epanalepsis

Back 12

The deliberate repetition of a word or short string of words at the beginning and end of a phrase or clause, used to clarify a definition or make a statement of, fact or aphorism.

Front 13

Epithet

Back 13

A literary device that is used as a descriptive device. It is usually used to add to a person or places's a regular name and attribute some special quality to the same

Front 14

epizeuxis

Back 14

repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis

Front 15

eponym

Back 15

A person after whom a discovery, invention, place etc. is named or though to be named

Front 16

euphemism

Back 16

saying something blunt or painful in a neutral way

Front 17

hyperbole

Back 17

An extreme exageration

Front 18

hyporphora

Back 18

When an author asks a question and then immediately gives an answer to that question

Front 19

rhetorical question

Back 19

in literature, a question asked simply for effect and requires no answer.

Front 20

litotes

Back 20

meiosis with a negative statement

Meiosis: understatement, the opposite of exaggeration

Front 21

metanoia

Back 21

The act of self-correction in speech or writing. May involve amplifying or retracting, strengthening or weakening a prior statement.

Front 22

metonymy

Back 22

using a vaguely suggestive; physical object to embody a more general idea

Front 23

synecdoche

Back 23

a rhetorical trope involving a part of an object representing the whole, or the whole of an object representing the part.

Front 24

parallelism

Back 24

When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length

Front 25

parenthesis

Back 25

descriptive phrase set off by commas

Front 26

polysyndeton

Back 26

using many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence

Front 27

sellepsis

Back 27

a rhetorical word/phrase that can be applied to two other words in different senses.

Front 28

zeugma

Back 28

a rhetorical word/phrase that governs/modifies two or more words in a sentence. However, it doesn't have to be grammatically or logically correct.