Rhetorical Vocabulary

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence.

Hint 1

let us go forth to lead the land we love

Front 2

Allusion

Back 2

Brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art.

Hint 2

Let both sides unite to heed, in all corners of the earth, the command of Isaiah

Front 3

Anaphora

Back 3

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

Hint 3

not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle

Front 4

Antimetabole

Back 4

Repetition of words in reverse order.

Hint 4

ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

Front 5

Antithesis

Back 5

Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.

Hint 5

support any friend, oppose any foe

Front 6

Archaic Diction

Back 6

Old-fashioned or outdated choice of words.

Hint 6

beliefs for which our forebears fought

Front 7

Asyndeton

Back 7

Omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

Hint 7

we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Front 8

Cumulative Sentence

Back 8

Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence, and then builds and adds on.

Hint 8

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course -- both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

Front 9

Hortative Sentence

Back 9

Sentence that exhorts, advises, calls to action.

Hint 9

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Front 10

Imperative Sentence

Back 10

Sentence used to command, enjoin, implore, or entreat.

Hint 10

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Front 11

Zeugma

Back 11

Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way, but producing different, often incongruous, meanings.

Hint 11

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden

Front 12

Inversion

Back 12

Inverted order of words in a sentence.

Hint 12

United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do

Front 13

Juxtaposition

Back 13

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts.

Hint 13

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans

Front 14

Metaphor

Back 14

Figure of speech that says one thing is another in order to explain by comparison.

Hint 14

And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion

Front 15

Metonymy

Back 15

Using a single feature to represent the whole.

Hint 15

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.

Front 16

Oxymoron

Back 16

Paradoxical juxtaposition of words that seem to contradict one another.

Hint 16

peaceful revolution

Front 17

Parallelism

Back 17

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

Hint 17

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Front 18

Periodic Sentence

Back 18

Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end.

Hint 18

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support

Front 19

Personification

Back 19

Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or idea.

Hint 19

history the final judge of our deeds

Front 20

Rhetorical Question

Back 20

Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer.

Hint 20

Will you join in that historic effort?