Figure of speech

Classical rhetoricians classified figures of speech into four categories or quadripita ratio:^[3]

• addition (adiectio), also called repetition/expansion/superabundance
• omission (detractio), also called subtraction/abridgement/lack
• transposition (transmutatio), also called transferring
• permutation (immutatio), also called switching/interchange/substitution/transmutation

These categories are often still used. The earliest known text listing them, though not explicitly as a system, is the Rhetorica ad Herennium, of unknown authorship, where they are called πλεονασμός (pleonasmos—addition), ἔνδεια (endeia—omission), μετάθεσις (metathesis—transposition) and ἐναλλαγή (enallage—permutation).^[4] Quintillian then mentioned them in Institutio Oratoria.^[5] Philo of Alexandria also listed them as addition (πρόσθεσις—prosthesis), subtraction (ἀφαίρεσις—afairesis), transposition (μετάθεσις—metathesis), and transmutation (ἀλλοίωσις—alloiosis).^[6]

 

Figures of speech come in many varieties.^[7] The aim is to use the language imaginatively to accentuate the effect of what is being said. A few examples follow:

• "Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran" is an example of alliteration, where the consonant r is used repeatedly. "Sister Suzy‘s sewing socks for soldiers" is a particular form of alliteration called sibilance, repeating an s sound. Both are commonly used in poetry.

• "She would run up the stairs and then a new set of curtains" is a variety of zeugma called a syllepsis. Run up can refer either to a quick ascent or to manufacture. The effect is enhanced by the momentary suggestion, through a pun, that she might be climbing the curtains. The ellipsis or omission of the second use of the verb makes the reader think harder about what is being said.
• "Painful pride" is an oxymoron, where two contradictory ideas are placed in the same sentence.
• "I had butterflies in my stomach" is a metaphor, referring to a nervous feeling as if there were flying insects in one's stomach.

To say "it was like having some butterflies in my stomach" is a simile, because it uses the word like, which a metaphor does not.

To say "It was like having a butterfly farm in my stomach", "It felt like a butterfly farm in my stomach", or "I was so nervous that I had a butterfly farm in my stomach" could be a hyperbole, because it is exaggerated.

• "That filthy place was really dirty" is an example of tautology, as there are the two words ('filthy' and 'dirty') having almost the same meaning and are repeated so as to make the text more emphatic.

 

Scholars of classical Western rhetoric have divided figures of speech into two main categories: schemes and tropes. Schemes (from the Greek schēma, 'form or shape') are figures of speech that change the ordinary or expected pattern of words. For example, the phrase, "John, my best friend" uses the scheme known as apposition. Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men").

During the Renaissance, scholars meticulously enumerated and classified figures of speech. Henry Peacham, for example, in his The Garden of Eloquence (1577), enumerated 184 different figures of speech. Professor Robert DiYanni, in his book Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama and the Essay^[8] wrote: "Rhetoricians have catalogued more than 250 different figures of speech, expressions or ways of using words in a nonliteral sense."

For simplicity, this article divides the figures between schemes and tropes, but does not further sub-classify them (e.g., "Figures of Disorder"). Within each category, words are listed alphabetically. Most entries link to a page that provides greater detail and relevant examples, but a short definition is placed here for convenience. Some of those listed may be considered rhetorical devices, which are similar in many ways.

Schemes are words or phrases whose syntax, sequence, or pattern occurs in a manner that varies from an ordinary usage.

• Accumulatio: restating, through accumulation, already said arguments in a concise and forceful manner.
• Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

  Example: "She sells sea shells by the sea shore".

• Anadiplosis: repetition of a word at the end of a clause and then at the beginning of its succeeding clause.
• Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
• Anastrophe: changing the object, subject and verb order in a clause.
• Anti-climax: an abrupt descent (either deliberate or unintended) on the part of a speaker or writer from the strong conclusion that appeared imminent.

  Example: "People, pets, batteries, ... all are dead."

• Antimetabole: a sentence consisting of the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in reverse order.
• Antithesis: juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas in separate clauses.
• Aphorismus: statement that calls into question if a word or phrase is properly used to characterize a subject.
• Aposiopesis: breaking off or pausing speech for dramatic or emotional effect, often through the use of dashes or ellipses.
• Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds: "Smooth move!" or "Please leave!" or "That's the fact Jack!"
• Asyndeton: omission of conjunctions between related clauses.
• Chiasmus: two or more clauses related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point. subordinate class to antimetabole.
• Climax: arrangement of words in an ascending order.
• Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse.
• Correlative verse: matching items in two sequences.
• Diacope: repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words.
• Elision: omission of one or more letters in speech, making it colloquial.
• Enallage: wording ignoring grammatical rules or conventions.
• Epanalepsis: ending sentences with their beginning.
• Epiphrase: one or more sentences (typically of the author's understanding/expression of the issue) added to the end of a completed sentence
• Epistrophe (also known as antistrophe): repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of successive clauses. The counterpart of anaphora.
• Epizeuxis: repetition of a single word, with no other intervening words.
• Hendiadys: use of two nouns to express an idea when it normally would consist of an adjective and a noun.
• Hendiatris: use of three nouns to express one idea.
• Homeoteleuton: words with the same ending.
• Hypallage: a transferred epithet from a conventional choice of wording.^[9]
• Hyperbaton: two ordinary associated words are detached.^[10][11] The term is also used more generally for any figure of speech that transposes natural word order.^[11]
• Hypozeuxis: every clause having its own independent subject and predicate.
• Hysteron proteron: the inversion of the usual temporal or causal order between two elements.
• Isocolon: use of parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses.
• Internal rhyme: using two or more rhyming words in the same sentence.
• Litotes: an understatement achieved by negating the opposite statement, such as "not too bad" for "very good", or "she is not a beauty queen" for "she is ugly", yielding an ironical effect.
• Onomatopoeia: word that imitates a real sound (e.g. tick-tock or boom).
• Paradiastole: A rhetorical device using euphemistic or mild language to avoid offence or harsh reality.
• Parallelism: the use of similar structures in two or more clauses.
• Paraprosdokian: A sentence or phrase with an unexpected twist or surprise at the end.
• Paroemion: alliteration in which nearly every word in a sentence or phrase begins with the same letter.
• Polyptoton: repetition of words derived from the same root.
• Polysyndeton: close repetition of conjunctions.
• Sibilance: repetition of letter 's', it is a form of consonance.
• Spoonerism: switching places of syllables within two words in a sentence yielding amusement.
• Syncope: omission of parts of a word or phrase.
• Symploce: simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning and the end of successive clauses.
• Synchysis: words that are intentionally scattered to create perplexment.
• Synecdoche: referring to a part by its whole or vice versa.
• Synonymia: use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentence.
• Tautology: redundancy due to superfluous qualification; saying the same thing twice.
• Tmesis: insertions of content within a compound word.
• Tricolon diminuens: combination of three elements, each decreasing in size.
• Tricolon crescens: combination of three elements, each increasing in size.
• Zeugma: the using of one verb for two or more actions.

Tropes are words or phrases whose contextual meaning differs from the manner or sense in which they are ordinarily used.

• Accismus: expressing the want of something by denying it.^[12]
• Adynaton: an extreme form of hyperbole (exaggeration). It the opposite of understatement.
• Allegory: a metaphoric narrative in which the literal elements indirectly reveal a parallel story of symbolic or abstract significance.^[13][14][15]
• Allusion: covert reference to another work of literature or art.
• Anacoenosis: posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker.
• Analogy: a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
• Anapodoton: leaving a common known saying unfinished.
• Antanaclasis: a form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses.^[16]
• Anthimeria: transformation of a word of a certain word class to another word class: such as a noun for a verb and vice versa. ^[17]
• Anthropomorphism: ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god (see zoomorphism).
• Antiphrasis: a name or a phrase used ironically such that it is obvious of what the true intention is: see verbal irony.
• Antonomasia: substitution of a proper name for a phrase or vice versa.
• Aphorism: briefly phrased, easily memorable statement of a truth or opinion, an adage.
• Aporia: faked or sincere puzzled questioning.
• Apophasis: (Invoking) an idea by denying its (invocation), also known as occupatio or paralipsis.
• Apostrophe: when an actor or speaker addresses an absent third party, often a personified abstraction or inanimate object.
• Bathos: pompous speech with a ludicrously mundane worded anti-climax.
• Catachresis: blatant misuse of words or phrases.
• Cliché: overused phrase or theme.
• Dysphemism: substitution of a harsher, more offensive, or more disagreeable term for another. Opposite of euphemism.
• Ekphrasis: lively describing something you see, often a painting.
• Epanorthosis: immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue.
• Euphemism: substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another.
• Hyperbole: use of exaggerated terms for emphasis.
• Hypocatastasis: an implication or declaration of resemblance that does not directly name both terms.
• Hypophora: answering one's own rhetorical question at length.
• Illeism: the act of referring to oneself in the third person instead of first person.
• Innuendo: having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not.
• Irony: use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning.^[18]
• Kenning: using a compound word neologism to form a metonym.
• Litotes: emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite.
• Malapropism: using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar.
• Meiosis: use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something.
• Merism: type of synecdoche referring to two or more contrasting parts to describe it's whole
• Metalepsis: figurative speech is used in a new context.
• Metaphor: an implied comparison between two things, attributing the properties of one thing to another that it does not literally possess.^[19]
• Metonymy: a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept.
• Nosism: the practice of using the pronoun we to refer to oneself when expressing a personal opinion.
• Non sequitur: statement that bears no relationship to the context preceding.
• Onomatopoeia: words that sound like their meaning.
• Oxymoron: using two terms together, that normally contradict each other.
• Parable: extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson.
• Paradiastole: extenuating a vice in order to flatter or soothe.
• Paradox: use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth.
• Paraprosdokian: phrase in which the latter part causes a rethinking or reframing of the beginning.
• Parody: humouristic imitation.
• Paronomasia: pun in which similar-sounding words but words having a different meaning are used.
• Pathetic fallacy: ascribing human conduct and feelings to nature.
• Personification: attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.
• Pleonasm: the use of more words than is necessary for clear expression.
• Procatalepsis: refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument.
• Proslepsis: extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic.
• Proverb: succinct or pithy, often metaphorical, expression of wisdom commonly believed true.
• Pun: play on words that has two meanings.
• Rhetorical question: asking a question as a way of asserting something. Asking a question that already has the answer hidden in it, or asking a question not to get an answer, but to assert something (or to create a poetic effect).
• Satire: humoristic criticism of society.
• Sesquipedalianism: use of long and obscure words.
• Simile: comparison between two things using like or as.
• Snowclone: alteration of cliché or phrasal template.
• Syllepsis: the use of a word in its figurative and literal sense at the same time or a single word used in relation to two other parts of a sentence although the word grammatically or logically applies to only one.
• Synecdoche: form of metonymy, referring to a part by its whole, or a whole by its part.
• Synesthesia: description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
• Tautology: superfluous repetition of the same sense in different words Example: The children gathered in a round circle
• Zeugma: use of a single verb to describe two or more actions.
• Zoomorphism: applying animal characteristics to humans or gods.

• Idiom
• List of forms of word play
• Repetition (rhetorical device)
• Rhetorical device
• Stylistic device

 

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