| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Antithesis | A balancing of one term against another for emphasis; "now high, now low" Strongly contrasting word, clauses, or ideas balanced against one another. "They promised freedom and provided slavery." |
| Juxtaposition | Placing two ideas or characters "side by side" for comparison or contrast |
| Asyndeton | Omission of the conjuections that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses. "I came, I saw, I conquered." |
| Ellipsis | Omission of a word or phrase for a complete syntactical structure but not understanding |
| Parallelism | Grammatial or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity; can involve repetition of a grammatical element such as a proposition or verbal phrases; acts as an organizational force to attract a reader's attention, add emphasis or organization, or simply provide musical rhythm |
| Chiasmus | Two corresponding pairs arranged not in paralles (a-b-a-b) but inverted order (a-b-b-a) from shape of the greek letter chi (x). |
| Polysyndeton | The repetition of conjuction is close succession for rhetorical effect. |
| Repetition | Reiteration of a word, sound, phrase, or idea; effect is to link and emphasize ideas. |
| Anadiplosis | The repetition of the last word from the previous line, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next |
| Anaphora | The repetition of the beginning word (or phrase) from the previous line, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next. (We shall not flag or fail. We shall not cry like little babies. We shall not die) |
| Epanalepsis | repetition of intervening words. (common sense is not very common) |
| Epistrophe | repetition of the ends of two or more successive sentences, verses. |
| Climax | arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power. Often the last emphatic word in one phrase or clause is repeated as the first emphatic word of the next. |
Combine with other sets
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