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deviation from normal signification of a word for rhetorical effect, or figures of speech with an unexpected twist in the meaning of words; usually refers to word use.
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| using one part of speech to act as another, such as adjective for a noun or noun for a verb, e.g. “We partied last night” (noun as verb), “Campbell’s: the soup that eats like a meal” (direct object as subject). |
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| a person or an abstract quality is directly address, whether present or not, e.g. “Freedom! Thou beguiling mistress!” |
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| a completely impossible figure of speech, e.g. “Mom had a cow when she found out.” |
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intentionally misusing grammar to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase, e.g. “You pays you money, and you takes your choice.”
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| Using a word or phrase to convey the opposite of their apparent meaning; “Scrubbing the toilet is my favorite chore.” |
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| understatement for effect, sometimes specifically used to refer to an ironically negative understatement, e.g. “Einstein wasn’t a bad mathematician.” |
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implied comparison between two dissimilar things; a word or phrase is transferred from its literal meaning to stand for something else; unlike similes, rather that saying one thing is like another, a metaphor says one thing is another.
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misspelling a word to create a rhetorical effect, such as to capture dialect, e.g. spelling “dog” as “dawg.”
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| a word whose syllables resemble the sound they signify, “gong,” “thud,” “itch,” “crackle,” “burp” |
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| contradictory terms juxtaposed, e.g. “a cheerful pessimist.” |
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substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a name, “fickle mistress” for luck, “big man upstairs” for God
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endowing objects abstractions with human attributes, “A lie gets halfway around the world before it gets a chance to put its pants on,” Winston Churchill
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adding an extra syllable to the beginning of a word, e.g. “I beweep my misfortune.”
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a homophone is repeated but used in a different sense, used for several varieties of word play
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a leading question, or a question not intended to be answered
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overt comparison between two dissimilar things, usually employs “like” or “as”
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| a part stands for the whole, e.g. “skirt” for a woman, “stuffed shirt” for a businessman |
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mixing one type of sensory input with another in an impossible way, “the scent of jasmine rang through the garden,” “that dress is so loud I can’t hear myself think.”
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| artfully using one verb with two or more different subjects or objects, changing the verb's meaning with each, sometimes called syllepsis: "If we don’t hang together, we shall hang separately" (Ben Franklin). "The queen of England sometimes takes advice in that chamber, and sometimes tea." “She exhausted both her audience and her repertoire.” "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject," Winston Churchill. |
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arrangement of words for rhetorical effect; usually refers to sentence structure
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| repetition of initial or medial consonants in associated words near one another |
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| repeating the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next, e.g. Nietzsche said, “Talent is adornment; an adornment is also a concealment.” |
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| repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach." Aristotle |
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| deliberate sentence fragment |
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| customary word order changed for emphasis, e.g. “Ask not what your country can do for you . . . ;” “The first time ever I saw your face.” |
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| repetition in reverse order, e.g. “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” "Winners never quit and quitters never win." Anonymous |
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| expression of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure, e.g. “Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities.” |
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| talking about not being able to talk about something, e.g. “I can’t tell you how excruciating it was to watch the surgeon pull the fly larva out of the little boy’s eyeball.” |
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| breaking off as if unable to continue, e.g. “Oh, dread! Oh, dread! It swallowed my [slurp! gulp!]” |
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| placing one noun or noun-equivalent beside another in a sentence to add description or explanation. The noun (or equivalent) must be equal in function and bear the same relation to the rest of the sentence as the original noun, eg. “Alexander, the coppersmith, did very much evil.” “The second stage—the translation of forecast pressure distribution—was most difficult.” |
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repetition of initial or medial vowel sounds in associated words near one another.
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| omission of connectives between a series of clauses |
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| arrangement in order of increasing importance or impact, eg. “I came, I saw, I conquered.” |
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| uninterrupted repetition, or repetition with only one or two words between each repeated word or phrase, e.g. “The horror, the horror.” |
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omitting a word implied by the previous clause, e.g. “Their soldiers killed six of the villagers, ours eight.”
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repeating a word from the beginning of a clause at the end of the same clause, e.g. “year after year,” “man’s inhumanity to man,” “dog eat dog.”
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the same word repeated at the end of successive phrases, e.g. “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck . . .”
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| the expression of similar meanings in similar grammatical constructions. |
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| deliberate use of many connectives, e.g. “I want six scoops of coconut ice cream on two brownies with hot fudge and whipped cream and chopped peanuts and sliced banana and one spoon and a big glass of water.” |
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| repeating words at both the beginning and the ending of a phrase, e.g. Saint Paul wrote, “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I,” (2 Corinthians 11:22). |
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| repetition of the initial letter or sound in two or more words. |
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| literally, “the changing into a man,” usually the portrayal of animal as a human, for example, showing it speak, walk upright, or share human motives. |
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| similarity or repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words. Also called partial or near rhyme (“lake” and “stake” are rhymes, “lake” and “fate” are assonance). |
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| A pause within a line of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. A caesura can occur anywhere within a line and need not be indicated by punctuation. In scanning a line, caesuras are indicated by a double vertical line (||). See also meter, rhythm, scansion. |
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| harsh, discordant, unpleasant arrangement of syllables |
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| repetition of consonant sounds within a line or verse. Consonance is similar to alliteration except that the repeated sound is not limited to the initial letter of a word. |
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| division into two contradictory parts or opinions, equally balanced and opposed. |
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| smooth, pleasant arrangement of poetic sound |
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| the need, demand, or requirement intrinsic to a circumstance, the purpose for which a literary work is created in its zeitgeist; theme is usually a response to it. |
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| a comedy written for stage or film in which fast-paced and absurd conflicts lead to chaos, often implying a criticism of human nature and endeavor. See "satire." |
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| an expression in which the words are used in a nonliteral sense. |
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| a unit of meter containing two or three syllables, generally a stressed and one or more unstressed syllables. |
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| a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements; the specific syntactic, grammatical, or structural character of a given language. |
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| description that appeals to the senses: visual, olfactory, auditory, gustatory, tactile, and kinesthetic, which evokes the sensation of motion. |
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| impled comparison between two unlike things indicating a likeness or analogy—says one thing is another. |
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| patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. |
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| the emotion the author intends to evoke in the reader, usually conveyed through diction and imagery. |
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| giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, abstractions, or animals. |
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| Latin for "reducing to the point of absurdity." A type of logical argument where one takes a claim to a ridiculous conclusion, thereby implying the claim is ridiculous. See "farce." |
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| the art of persuasion. Also, the study of techniques used to persuade an audience of listeners or readers. |
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likeness of sound at the end of two words
Position of Rhyme—end or internal rhyme
Masculine Rhyme—one-syllable word rhymes with another: “dog, log”
Feminine Rhyme—last two syllables of two words rhyme: “lawful, awful”
Triple Rhyme—three syllables of words rhyme: “victorious, glorious.” |
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| human or individual vices or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule ideally with the intent to bring about improvement. |
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| comparison between two unrelated things indicating a likeness between them. |
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| sections of poetry unified by idea and separated from others by a space break, named according to number of lines as follows: 2=couplet, 3=tercet, 4=quatrain, 5=cinquain, 6=sestet, 7=septet, 8=octet (octave), and afterward “9-lined stanza” and so on. |
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| a narrative technique in which a character seems not only to be thinking out loud, but also to be manifesting symptoms of subconscious experience. In creating this illusion the novelist dispenses with normal sentences and punctuation and instead runs words, notions, feelings, images, and vestiges from deep within the psyche's past together in one continuous stream, a technique also called "interior monologue." |
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| the way in which linguistic elements such as words are put together to form constituents, such as phrases or clauses; harmonious arrangement of parts or elements; the part of grammar dealing with arrangement of words into phrases or clauses; (it is not sentence length). |
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| needless repetition, as in “a widow woman” or “adequate enough;” in logic a statement that is necessarily true, as in “it will either rain or it will not;” a circular statement that asserts itself, as in “This novel about slavery addresses enslavement.” |
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| the unifying point, message, or purpose of a literary work that gives it momentum and exigency, its reason for being |
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| the attitude of the narrator or author toward the material or the reader/audience. Usually conveyed through diction and imagery. |
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| the use of words in other than their literal sense, such as metaphor or irony; word play. |
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| based on meter and rhyme. Rhymed Verse—end rhyme with regular meter (usually). Blank Verse—iambic pentameter without end rhyme. Free Verse—no regular meter and no rhyme |
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| German for "spirit of the times" |
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| A pause within a line of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. A caesura can occur anywhere within a line and need not be indicated by punctuation. In scanning a line, caesuras are indicated by a double vertical line (||). See also meter, rhythm, scansion. |
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| one stressed followed by two unstressed: “drearily murmuring.” |
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| one unstressed and one stressed syllable: “I ran and grasped.” |
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| two stressed syllables: “Green-hued oak leaves.” |
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| one stressed and one unstressed syllable: “Trotting down the alley.” |
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| Anapest or Anapestic Foot |
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| two unstressed followed by one stressed syllable: “At a bound he had leaped on the foe.” |
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Monometer—one-foot line
Dimeter—two-foot line
Trimeter—three-foot line
Tetrameter—four-foot line
Pentameter—five-foot line
Hexameter—six-foot line
Heptameter—seven-foot line
Octometer—eight-foot line |
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| a simple, narrative verse telling a story to be sung. |
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| unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, as opposed to “free verse.” |
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| a lyric poem in which the speaker tells the audience about a dramatic moment in his or her life that reveals his or her true nature. |
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| a poem of lament, usually meditating on the death of an individual. |
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| a long, dignified narrative poem giving an account of a hero who embodies the values of his nation or race. |
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| unrhymed lines without regular rhythm, as opposed to “blank verse.” |
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| subjective, reflective poetry with regular rhyme scheme and meter which reveals the poet’s thoughts and feelings to create a single, unique impression. |
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| nondramatic, objective verse with regular rhyme scheme and meter which relates a story or narrative. |
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| elaborate lyric verse on a dignified theme |
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| Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet |
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an octave and sestet, between which a break in thought occurs, rhyming abba abba cde cede or in the sestet any variation of c, d, and e.
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| Shakespearean (English) Sonnet |
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| three quatrains and a concluding rhymed couplet in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg. |
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a rigid 14-line verse form with variable structure and rhyme scheme according to type: Shakespearean (English) and Petrarchan (Italian).
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| a French verse form, calculated to appear simple and spontaneous, five tercets anda final quatrain rhyming aba aba aba aba aba abaa; lines 1, 6, 12, 18 and 3, 9, 15, and 19 are refrain. |
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| alternatives presented in a balanced manner, e.g. “You can smoke now and die sooner or quit now and live longer.” |
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