Figurative Language

Mrs. Regan (United States of America)
11 words 114 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
    “When do I count the clock that tells the time?” – Sonnet 12, William Shakespeare
  2. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
    “My rep grows like the nose of Pinocchio, Just because I've mastered the art of braggadocio.” -Akrobatik
  3. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
    But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down, The whole crowd goes so loud (Eminem "Lose Yourself)
  4. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
    I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
  5. irony
    incongruity between what is expected and what occurs
    Irony inverts our expectations. It can create the unexpected twist at the end of a joke or a story that gets us laughing — or crying. Verbal irony tends to be funny; situational irony can be funny or tragic; and dramatic irony is often tragic.
  6. juxtaposition
    the act of positioning close together
    side by side contrasting elements

    Charles Dickens "A Tale of two Cities"

    “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”
  7. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
    "The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner." - (Cynthia Ozick, "Rosa")
    Direct comparison
  8. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
    “Hot like a sauna” – Ludacris
    uses like or as
  9. personification
    attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
    “I woke up energized, My clock speaking, Closet door open, My clothes looking at me, Fresh kicks sleeping” -Median
  10. onomatopoeia
    using words that imitate the sound they denote
    Buzzzzzz. Bam! Pow! Ker-plop
  11. imagery
    the ability to form mental pictures of things or events
    visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work
    John Keats’ “To the Autumn”

    “Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
    Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
    The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
    And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”
Created on Fri Feb 13 14:52:11 EST 2015 (updated Mon Mar 14 14:55:51 EDT 2016)

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