| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Chiasmus | A reversal of corresponding pairs (Her voice was warm, but cold was her heart) |
| Tmesis | Splitting a word (Un-flippin-believable) |
| Litotes | The use of a negative to create an understatement |
| Metaphor | A comparison without "like"* |
| Similie | Comaprison with "like" or "as if" |
| Synesis | Agreement by sense rather than grammatical rule (The team landed last night and we wanted to greet them) |
| Juxtaposition | Placing words near each other for an effect |
| Synechdoche | When a part represents the whole (The pen is mightier than the sword) |
| Transferred Epithet | An adjective modifying one noun although it should modify another (to shake an angry finger) |
| Anaphora | Repition of initial words |
| Synchesis | Interlocked word order |
| Hendiadys | 2 words that are parallel when subordination is more appropriate (the crowd and the noise were overbearing) |
| Zeugma | Two words governed by one although only 1 of the2 is strictly appropriate (She broke the glass and my heart) |
| Antithesis | The use of an opposite to highlight a contrast |
| Preterition | Mentioning something while professing not to (what politicians do) |
| Syncope | A middle syllable is omitted (petisti instead of petivisti) |
| Apocope | Omission of the end of a word (cred instead of credability) |
| Aphesis | Omission of a front syllable ('stralia instead of Australia) |
| Apostrophe | Addressed to an inatimate object or person |
| Pejoration | Act of making something worse than it is |
| Anastrophe | The inverstion of accepted word order (Whom did you give it to?) |
| Metonymy | Substitution of one word for another (The White House announced) |
| Epithet | A characteristic adjective (the staff-bearing Mercury) |
| Polysyndeton | The use of too many conjunctions |
| Periphrasis | A surfeit of words; using more than necessary (That gathering of swelling ice crystals [ice]) |
| Asyndeton | A lack of conjunctions |
| Ellipsis | omission of words |
| Pleonasm | The use of superfluous words (He licked it with his tongue) |
| Prolepsis | Anticipating an act already done (The waves engulfed the sunken ship) |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for effect |
| antonomasia | Using the name of a divinity to replace an object related to it (Ceres = food) |
| Paradox | An apparent contradiction, with truth |
Combine with other sets
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