Rhetorical Tropes

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of each word in a sequence.

Hint 1

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

Front 2

Anaphora

Back 2

repetition of a word or a sequence of words in (neighbouring) clauses

Hint 2

I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country.

Front 3

Antithesis

Back 3

Opposite words/ideas placed close together

Hint 3

we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Front 4

Aposiopesis

Back 4

the figure of silence or interruption

Hint 4

Dear Ketel One Drinken - There comes a time in everyone's life when they just want to stop what they're doing.

Front 5

Assonance

Back 5

Grouping of the same or very similar vowels closely in a sequence of words

Hint 5

She loves the thunder

Front 6

Asyndeton

Back 6

deliberately omitting conjunctions

Hint 6

He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac.

Front 7

Captatio benevolentiae

Back 7

appealing to the goodwill of the audience by undermining yourself.

Hint 7

I realize I'm not the most likely candidate for the job.

Front 8

Anadiploisis

Back 8

repeating a final word in the first phrase or clause at the beginning of the second, last of second in the third, etc.

Hint 8

the world were but as an empire, that empire as a province, that province as a bank, that bank as a private purse.

Front 9

Consonance

Back 9

repetition of non-initial consonants

Hint 9

as the wind will bend.

Front 10

Ekphrasis

Back 10

when a visual object is vividly described in words.

Hint 10

the London sky lit up by red hot flames.

Front 11

Erotema/ rhetorical question

Back 11

a question not expecting a reply, but asked for the sake of emotional or logical emphasis.

Hint 11

How many death will it take, till we know too many have died?

Front 12

Hyperbaton

Back 12

deviation form the expected word order

Hint 12

Sorry I be but go you must.

Front 13

Hyperbole

Back 13

exaggeration

Hint 13

I killed a shark with my bare hands while cooking a meal and cutting my own hair.

Front 14

Irony

Back 14

usually antiphrasis, using a word or statement in the opposite sense to what would normally be understood.

Hint 14

A little water clears us of this deed.

Front 15

Metaphor

Back 15

describing one thing directly in terms of another which shares some characteristics with it. Implicit comparison.

Hint 15

Between the lower east side tenements thy sky is a snotty handkerchief.

Front 16

Onomatopoeia

Back 16

when the sound of words mimics or reinforces their meaning.

Hint 16

Bang! Crash! Ouch!

Front 17

Oxymoron

Back 17

terms that seem to contradict each other.

Hint 17

and faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

Front 18

Parison

Back 18

when corresponding/parallel grammatical structures are used in a series of phrases or clauses

Hint 18

we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure victory.

Front 19

Periphrasis

Back 19

an expensive way of saying something that might be said more simply.

Hint 19

a long elongated fruit (banana)

Front 20

Polysyndeton

Back 20

lot of conjunctions

Hint 20

let them have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns and books

Front 21

Praeteritio

Back 21

invoking a subject by saying that you won't

Hint 21

I won't talk about the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy.

Front 22

Personification

Back 22

attributing human qualities to an inanimate object.

Hint 22

the wind stood up and gave a shout.

Front 23

Puns

Back 23

word jokes, based on different meaning of one word or on the similar sound of two different words.

Hint 23

"If you won't work with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm" "You can tune a guitar but you can't tuna fish"

Front 24

Simile

Back 24

likening one thing to another using 'like' or 'as'

Hint 24

stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men.

Front 25

Synecdoche

Back 25

part for the whole or whole for the part.

Hint 25

'Hollywood' to describe the American mainstream film industry.

Front 26

Tricolon

Back 26

series of three parallel words, phrases or clauses. Can be ascending or descending.

Hint 26

'Remember this day, this weak, this month.' or 'Forget this year, this month, this day'