| Term | Definition |
|---|
| apostrophe | the direct address to a deceased or absent person as if he or she were present, to an animal or thing, or an artistic idea or quality |
| malapropism | an unconscious error in speech or writing on a part of a character which is deliberate on the part of the author; result from substituting one word for another with a similar sound but entirely different meaning |
| apposition | pairs of complementary ideas |
| antithesis | pairs of contrasting ideas |
| litotes | esp. important in satire; a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite |
| ellipsis | omission (done deliberately, for effect) |
| asyndeton | omission of conjunctions in a series |
| polysyndeton | use of multiple conjunctions in a series |
| anaphora | repetition of word(s) at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs |
| epistrophe | repetition of the same word(s) at the end of successive clauses |
| epanalepsis | use of the same word at the start and the end of a clause |
| anadiplosis | use of the last word on one clause for the start of the next clause |
| antimetabole | repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order |
| chiasmus | reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses |
| polyptoton | repetition of words from the same root in different forms, cases, numbers, genders, etc. |
| caesura | a midline pause in a line of verse |
| epizeuxis | immediately repeating a word to give it greater impact |
| parison | repeating an entire sentence or clause almost exactly |
| ploce | repeating words in a line or clause |
| atanaclasis | punning on a repeated word to obtain different meanings |
| bombast | boastful or ranting language (adj. form: bombastic) |
| fricative | consonant made by the friction of breath in a narrow opening, producing a turbulent airflow (f, th) |
| plosive | consonant produced by stopping the airflow using lips, teeth, or palate, followed by a sudden release of air (voiceless--t, k, p; voiced--d, g, b |
| parataxis | placing of phrases/clauses, one after another, without words to indicate coordination or subordination |
| hypotaxis | the subordination of one clause to another |
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