1. Irony: The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal
meaning. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended
meaning. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect.
2. Alliteration: The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of
words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences” (Hart Crane). Modern
alliteration is predominantly consonantal; certain literary traditions, such as Old English verse, also
alliterate using vowel sounds.
3. Paradox: A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that
standing is more tiring than walking. One exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects: “The silence of
midnight, to speak truly, though apparently a paradox, rung in my ears” (Mary Shelley). An assertion that
is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction from acceptable premises. A
statement contrary to received opinion.
4. Euphemism: The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered
harsh, blunt, or offensive: “Euphemisms such as „slumber room‟... abound in the funeral business”
(Jessica Mitford).
5. Hyperbole: A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep
for a year or This book weighs a ton.
6. Litotes: A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by
negating its opposite, as in This is no small problem.
7. Mytonymy: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is
closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for
military power.
8. Syllepsis: A construction in which a word governs two or more other words but agrees in number,
gender, or case with only one, or has a different meaning when applied to each of the words, as in He lost
his coat and his temper.
9. Chiasmus: A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures, as in “Each throat/Was
parched, and glazed each eye” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
10. Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole
for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general
for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).
11. Pun: A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar
sense or sound of different words.
12. Allusion: The act of alluding; indirect reference: Without naming names, the candidate criticized the
national leaders by allusion. An instance of indirect reference: an allusion to classical mythology in a
poem.
13. Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used
to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world's a
stage” (Shakespeare). One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always
been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven”
(Neal Gabler).
14. Symbol: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention,
especially a material object used to represent something invisible.
15. Oxymoron: A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a
deafening silence and a mournful optimist.
16. Aphorism: A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage. A brief statement of a
principle.
17. Anaphora: The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive
verses, clauses, or paragraphs; for example, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the
landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills” (Winston S.
Churchill). Linguistics. The use of a linguistic unit, such as a pronoun, to refer back to another unit, as
the use of her to refer to Anne in the sentence Anne asked Edward to pass her the salt.
18. Inversion: The act of inverting. The state of being inverted. An interchange of position of
adjacent objects in a sequence, especially a change in normal word order, such as the placement of
a verb before its subject.
19. Apostrophe: The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction,
especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition.
20. Symbolism: The practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic
meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships. A system of symbols or representations.
A symbolic meaning or representation. Revelation or suggestion of intangible conditions or truths by
artistic invention. Symbolism The movement, theory, or practice of the late 19th-century Symbolists.
21. Personification: A person or thing typifying a certain quality or idea; an embodiment or
exemplification: “He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative” (Ralph Ellison). A figure of
speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are
represented as possessing human form, as in Hunger sat shivering on the road or Flowers danced
about the lawn. Also called prosopopeia. Artistic representation of an abstract quality or idea as a
person.
22. Hypothetical: Suppositional; uncertain. Conditional; contingent
23. Rhetorical question: Used for persuasive effect and does not require a direct and immediate
answer from the audience or reader—it does challenge the audience, make them more alert.
24. Simile: A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase
introduced by like or as, as in “How like the winter hath my absence been” or “So are you to my
thoughts as food to life” (Shakespeare).
25. Deductive Reasoning: reasoning from the general to the particular (or from
cause to effect)
26. Invective: Denunciatory or abusive language; vituperation. Denunciatory or abusive expression
or discourse. n : abusive or venomous language used to express blame or censure or bitter deepseated ill will
27. Parallelism: The quality or condition of being parallel; a parallel relationship. Likeness,
correspondence, or similarity in aspect, course, or tendency. Grammar. The use of identical or
equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases. Philosophy. The doctrine that
to every mental change there corresponds a concomitant but causally unconnected physical
alteration.
28. Asyndeton: The omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be
used, as in “Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,/Shrunk to this little measure?”
(Shakespeare).
29. Inverted word order: To turn inside out or upside down: invert an hourglass. To reverse the
position, order, or condition of: invert the subject and predicate of a sentence.
30. Imperative: Expressing a command or plea; peremptory: requests that grew more and more
imperative. Having the power or authority to command or control. Grammar. Of, relating to, or
constituting the mood that expresses a command or request. Impossible to deter or evade; pressing:
imperative needs.
31. Colloquial speech: Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that
seeks the effect of speech; informal. Relating to conversation; conversational. adj : characteristic of
informal spoken language or conversation; "wrote her letters in a colloquial style"; "the broken syntax
and casual enunciation of conversational English"
32. Connotative diction: An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing:
Hollywood holds connotations of romance and glittering success. The set of associations implied by a
word in addition to its literal meaning. Logic. The set of attributes constituting the meaning of a term;
intension.
33. Metaphorical allusions: expressing one thing in terms normally denoting another; "a
metaphorical expression"; "metaphoric language"A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that
ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as
in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world's a stage” (Shakespeare). An instance of indirect reference: an
allusion to classical mythology in a poem.
34. Figurative Language: speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a
special effect or meaning, speech or writing employing figures of speech
35. Euphemistic diplomacy: The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term
for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: “Euphemisms such as „slumber room‟... abound in the
funeral business” (Jessica Mitford) diplomacy: The art or practice of conducting international relations,
as in negotiating alliances, treaties, and agreements. Tact and skill in dealing with people.
36. Circular reasoning: a use of reason in which the premises depends on or is equivalent to the
conclusion, a method of false logic by which "this is used to prove that, and that is used to prove this";
also called circular logic
37. Post hoc ergo propter hoc: the logical fallacy of believing that temporal succession implies a
causal relation
38. Ad hominem: Appealing to personal considerations rather than to logic or reason: Debaters
should avoid ad hominem arguments that question their opponents' motives Usage Note: As the
principal meaning of the preposition ad suggests, the homo of ad hominem was originally the person
to whom an argument was addressed, not its subject. The phrase denoted an argument designed to
appeal to the listener's emotions rather than to reason, as in the sentence The Republicans'
evocation of pity for the small farmer struggling to maintain his property is a purely ad hominem
argument for reducing inheritance taxes. This usage appears to be waning; only 37 percent of the
Usage Panel finds this sentence acceptable. The phrase now chiefly describes an argument based
on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case: Ad hominem attacks on one's
opponent are a tried-and-true strategy for people who have a case that is weak.
39. Begging the question: Take for granted or assume the truth of the very thing being questioned. For
example, Shopping now for a dress to wear to the ceremony is really begging the question she hasn't
been invited yet. This phrase, whose roots are in Aristotle's writings on logic, came into English in the late
1500s. In the 1990s, however, people sometimes used the phrase as a synonym of "ask the question" (as
in The article begs the question: "What are we afraid of?")