Alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
Allusion
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or
passing reference
Antithesis
a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else
Assonance
resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby words, arising particularly from the rhyming of
two or more stressed vowels, but not consonants (e.g. sonnet, porridge ), but also from the use of
identical consonants with different vowels (e.g. killed, cold, culled )
Euphemism
a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when
referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Irony
the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically
for humorous or emphatic effect
Litotes
ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary
Metaphor
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not
literally applicable
Onomatopoeia
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle )
Oxymoron
a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Pathetic fallacy
the attribution of human feelings and responses to aspects within nature, especially in art and
literature
Pun
a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which
sound alike but have different meanings
Repetition
the action of repeating something that has already been said or written
Rhetorical question
a question that you ask without expecting an answer. The question might be one that does not
have an answer. It might also be one that has an obvious answer but you have asked
the question to make a point, to persuade or for literary effect
Rhyme
correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used
at the ends of lines of poetry
Simile
a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used
to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion )
Synechdoche
a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in England lost
by six wickets (meaning ‘the English cricket team’)