Figurative and Descriptive Writing
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20 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Figurative Language | writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid; context clues help to indicate |
| Figure of Speech | device used to produce figurative language; many compare dissimilar things |
| Metaphor | speaking about something as if it was another; unlikely comparison between two things |
| Natural Metaphor | speaks of something concrete by referring to something else concrete |
| Abstract Metaphor | explains an abstract principle by comparing it to something more concrete |
| Embedded Metaphor | uses a verb or noun in non-literal fashion |
| Extended Metaphor | continues in sentence after it; metaphor on a metaphor ("The seeds of discontent have already been sown. It remains to be seen whether weeds or flowers spring forth.") |
| Simile | figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike (like, as, similar to, than, resembles) |
| Conceit | fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects; displays intellectual cleverness as a result of comparison |
| Personification | figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, inanimate objects by endowing them with human emotions; makes abstractions more vivid |
| Metonymy | "changed label", "substitute name"; figure of speech in which name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it ('Red Coats' = British) |
| Synecdoche | figure of speech in which part of something is used to present whole, or whole used to represent part ("One cannot live on bread alive.") |
| Symbol | anything that represents self and stands for something else; usually concrete |
| Natural Symbols | objects and occurrences from nature to symbolize ideas commonly associated with them |
| Conventional Symbols | those that have been invested with meaning by a group |
| Literary Symbols | sometimes also conventional in the sense that they are found in a variety of works |
| Analogy | explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out similarities to something more familiar; more logical argument |
| Caricature | verbal description, purpose to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person's distinctive physical feature or other characteristics |
| Imagery | sensory detail or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions; can represent more than one thing; can apply to total of all images in a work |
| Synesthesia | when one kind of sensory stimulus evokes subjective experience of another; associating two or more different senses in same image |
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