1.
paradox: an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it. [What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young]
2.
paraprosdokian: surprise or unexpected ending of a phrase or series. [He was at his best when the going was good.] [There but for the grace of God -- goes God]
3.
paronomasia: use of similar sounding words; often etymological word-play.
[...culled cash, or cold cash, and then it turned into a gold cache.][Thou art Peter (Greek petros), and upon this rock (Greek petra) I shall build my church.][The dying Mercutio: Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.]
4.
personification: attribution of personality to an impersonal thing. [England expects every man to do his duty.]
5.
pleonasm: use of superfluous or redundant words, often enriching the thought. [No one, rich or poor, will be excepted.] [Ears pierced while you wait!] [I have seen no stranger sight since I was born.]
6.
polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses. [I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Bay and she was all right only she was full of water.]
7.
praeteritio: paraleipsis. pretended omission for rhetorical effect. [That part of our history detailing the military achievements which gave us our several possessions ... is a theme too familiar to my listeners for me to dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it by.]
8.
prolepsis: the anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause before its antecedent. [Consider the lilies of the field how they grow.]
9.
simile: an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'. [My love is as a fever, longing still / For that which longer nurseth the disease] [Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope.]
10.
syllepsis: use of a word with two others, with each of which it is understood differently. [We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.]
11.
synchysis: interlocked word order.
12.
synecdoche: understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A form of metonymy.) [Give us this day our daily bread] [The U.S. won three gold medals. (Instead of, The members of the U.S. boxing team won three gold medals.)]
13.
synesis: constructio ad sensum. the agreement of words according to logic, and not by the grammatical form; a kind of anacoluthon. [For the wages of sin is death.] [Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.]
14.
tautology: repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence. [With malice toward none, with charity for all.]
15.
zeugma: two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them. [Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn / The living record of your memory.]
