Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical Device: A technique an author uses to make his/her writing more effective and give it more power.
Rhetorical Device
Definition
Example(s)
Repetition of initial sound of words
Perfect peach
Delightful day
The student was no Einstein.
Allusion
Indirect reference to something famous
(often mythology, literature, Bible…)
Amplification
Repeating a word or expression while
adding more detail
Pride, boundless pride, is the bane of
civilization.
Anadiplosis
Repeating the last word of one phrase at
or near the beginning of the next
She was broken, broken because of the way
she had been treated.
Analogy
Extended metaphor – comparison of two
things which are alike in multiple respects
Knowledge always desires increase: it is like
fire, which must first be kindled by some
external agent, but which afterwards
propagate itself. (Samuel Johnson)
Not time, not money, not laws, but willing…
Alliteration
Anaphora
Repetition of the same word(s) at the
BEGINNING of successive phrases,
clauses, or sentences
Two contrasting ideas near one another
Antithesis
One small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.
Interruption of the discussion to directly
address a person or thing
Where, O Death, is thy sting?
Apostrophe
Fred, the tallest boy in class, went swimming.
Appositive
Renaming of a noun immediately after
the noun
Clean eating
Assonance
Similar vowel sounds repeated in
successive words
Omit conjunctions between words,
phrases, or clauses
She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates.
Asyndeton
Reverse parallelism – Second part of the
construction is in reverse order from the
first
Repeats the beginning word of a clause at
the end.
On the way to school my car ran out of gas; it
had a flat on the way home.
Repetition of the same word or words at
the END of successive phrases, clauses, or
sentences
An adjective describing a subject by
naming a key characteristic
…reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good
will is subdued.
Chiasmus
Epanalepsis
Epistrophe
Epithet
Water dug this canyon; yes, just plain water.
Laughing happiness
Sneering contempt
Rhetorical Device
Definition
Repetition of one word for emphasis
Example(s)
What do you see? Wires, wires, everywhere
wires.
Deliberate exaggeration
I’ve told you a thousand times to clean your
room.
Metaphor
Comparison between two things –
speaking of one in terms of the other
Onomatopoeia
Use of words whose pronunciation
imitates the sound the word describes
The fountain of knowledge will eventually dry
up.
Her words to me were rain on barren soil.
Buzz
Zap
Oxymoron
Two word paradox (paradox is a
seemingly impossible contradiction)
Humbly bold
Modest magnificence
Parallelism
Items in a sentence (or several sentences)
are in the same grammatical format
He likes running long distances, playing
volleyball, and reading books.
Parenthesis
Word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted
as an aside in the middle of a sentence
I can’t remember – my memory is going – how
many books she said to bring.
Animal or inanimate object is given
human attributes
This is a friendly house.
Personification
Polysyndeton
Add conjunctions between each word,
phrase, or clause (opposite of asyndeton)
She likes pickles, and olives, and raisins, and
dates.
Pun
Play on words exploiting multiple
meanings of the same word
A hard-boiled egg every morning is hard to
beat.
Asking a question without expecting or
giving an answer
Is this what things have come to?
Rhetorical Question
Simile
Comparison between two things (using
“like” or “as”)
The men look like trees walking.
Her hair was black as coal.
A part of something represents the whole
Farmer Jones has two hundred head of cattle.
Ten hired hands work at the farm.
Deliberately expressing an idea as less
important than it actually is
Einstein was sort of smart.
Epizeuxis
Hyperbole
Synecdoche
Understatement