English — Figures Of Speech

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Oxymoron

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The combination of 2 words that contradict each other.

Incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

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Paradox

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A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

A statement that appears to contradict itself.

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Simile

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A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though.

A stated comparison between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.

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Lamb

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A metrical foot or a unit of rhythm in poetry that consists of one syllable that is unstressed followed by one syllable that is stressed.

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Pentameter

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A line of verse in poetry that has five stressed syllables in each kine. Lambic Pentameter is a commonly used type of metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama.

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Metaphor

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The comparison between essentially unlike things without using words, applications of name or descriptions to something to which it is not literally applicable.

An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

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Pun

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Play on word or humorous use of single word or sound with two or more implied meanings.

Play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.

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Imagery

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A word or sequence of words representing a sensory experience.

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Onomatopoeia

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The use words to imitate the sounds they describe.

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Alliteration

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The repetition of consonant sounds particularly at the beginning of word.

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Allusion

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A reference to the person or work outside the poem or literary piece.

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Allegory

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The representation of abstract ideas or principles by concerts or material forms through figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.

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Couplet

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A pair of lines, usually rhymed.

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Sonnet

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A 14-line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme. The rhyming scheme of Shakespearean or English sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg and the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet is abba abba cde cde or abba abba cd cd cd.

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Rhyme Scheme

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The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or a verse.

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Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet

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A form of sonnet popularised by Petrarch with the following rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde cdcd

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Ballard

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A narrative poem written in four line stanza, characterised by swift action and narrated in a direct style.

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Synecdoche

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A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special.

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Elegy

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A lyric poem that laments the dead.

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Epic

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A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. It typically chronicles the origins of a civilization and embody its central values.

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Hyperbole

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This is the use of exaggeration to evoke strong feelings or impression.

An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

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Irony

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The use of words to convey a meaning that is often opposite to their literal meaning; typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

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Quatrain

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Four line stanza or grouping of four lines of verse.

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Anaphora

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The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

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Antithesis

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The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

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Apostrophe

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Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.

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Assonance

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Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowel in neighbouring words.

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Chiasmus

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A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

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Euphemism

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The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

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Litotes

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A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

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Metonymy

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A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.

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Personification

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A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.

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Understatement

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A figure of speech in which a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.