| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Metaphor | An implied comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common |
| Simile | An explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common |
| Catachresis | The usage of two different metaphors in the same sentence |
| Synecdoche | A figure of spech in which a part stands for the whole |
| Metonymy | Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant |
| Antanaclasis | Repetition of a word in two different senses |
| Paronomasia | Use of words alike in sound but different in meaning |
| Syllepsis | Use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs |
| Zeugma | Like a syllepsis, except that the single word does not fit grammatically or idiomatically with one member of the pair |
| Anthimeria | The substitution of one part of speech for another |
| Periphrasis | Substitution of descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name |
| Prosopopoeia | Personification, ivesting abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities |
| Hyperbole | The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect |
| Auxesis | Magnifying the importance or gravity of something by referring to it with a disproportionate name |
| Litotes | Deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive someone but to enhance the impressiveness of what we say |
| Meiosis | Opposite of auxesis, the lessening of something |
| Erotema | Rhetorical question, asking a question not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely |
| Irony | Use of a word insuch a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word |
| Paralipsis | One proposes to pass over some matter, yet manages subtly to reveal the matter anyway |
| Onomatopoeia | Use of words whose sound echoes the sense |
| Oxymoron | The yoking of two terms that are ordinarily contradictory |
| Paradox | An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth |
Combine with other sets
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