Rhetorical Tropes

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

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

Front 2

Anadiplosis

Back 2

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

Front 3

Anaphora

Back 3

Repetition of a word or a sequence of words in (neighbouring) clauses.

Front 4

Antithesis

Back 4

Opposite words/ideas placed close together.

Front 5

Aposiopesis

Back 5

Breaking off a sentence before completion, often indicating a passionate feeling of one kind or another.

Front 6

Assonance

Back 6

Grouping of the same or very similar vowels closely in a sequence of words (only applied to stressed syllables).

Front 7

Asyndeton

Back 7

Deliberately omitting conjunctions (and, but, or).

Front 8

Captatio Benevolentiae

Back 8

Appealing to the goodwill of the audience, often by undermining yourself.

Front 9

Consonance

Back 9

Repetition of non-initial consonants.

Front 10

Ekphrasis

Back 10

When a visual object (often a work of art) is vividly described in words.

Front 11

Erotema / rhetorical question

Back 11

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

Front 12

Hyperbaton

Back 12

Deviating from the expected word order.

Front 13

Hyperbole

Back 13

Exaggeration.

Front 14

Irony

Back 14

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

Front 15

Metaphor

Back 15

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

Front 16

Onomatopoeia

Back 16

When the sound or words mimics or reinforces their meaning.

Front 17

Oxymoron

Back 17

Terms that seem to contradict eachother.

Front 18

Parison

Back 18

When corresponding/parallel grammatical structures are used in a series of phrases or clauses (i.e. not literal repetition).

Front 19

Periphrasis

Back 19

An expansive way of saying something that might be said more concisely.

Front 20

Polysyndeton

Back 20

Using more conjunctions that is necessary.

Front 21

Praeteritio

Back 21

Invoking a subject by saying that you won't.

Front 22

Prosopopoiea / personification

Back 22

Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects.

Front 23

Antanaclasis (puns)

Back 23

A word is repeated with two different meanings.

Front 24

Paranomasia (puns)

Back 24

A play on words which sounds identical
(homophones) but which have different meanings.

Front 25

Simile

Back 25

Likening one thing to another using 'like' or 'as'. Explicit metaphor.

Front 26

Synecdoche

Back 26

Part for the whole or whole for the part. A form of metonomy (where something is not called by its name, but by the name of something associated with it).

Front 27

Tricolon

Back 27

A series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. Ascending or descending.