Rhyme’s Reason: Reading: Literature - Literary Devices & Figures of Speech - Middle School

If you want to understand the tools and techniques that great writers use, learn these literary devices and figures of speech. Review this vocabulary list and you'll be a master of metaphor, an expert on euphemism, and a pro at puns.
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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
  2. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
  3. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
  4. analogy
    drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity
  5. apostrophe
    an address to an absent or imaginary person
  6. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
  7. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
  8. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
  9. contradiction
    opposition between two conflicting forces or ideas
  10. deus ex machina
    an agent who appears unexpectedly to solve a difficulty
  11. epigraph
    a quotation at the beginning of some piece of writing
  12. euphemism
    an inoffensive expression substituted for an offensive one
  13. flashback
    a transition in a story to an earlier event or scene
  14. foreshadowing
    the act of providing vague advance indications
  15. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  16. irony
    incongruity between what is expected and what occurs
  17. juxtaposition
    the act of positioning close together
  18. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
  19. onomatopoeia
    using words that imitate the sound they denote
  20. oxymoron
    conjoined contradictory terms
  21. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
  22. parody
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
  23. personification
    representing an abstract quality or idea as a human
  24. pun
    a humorous play on words
  25. repetition
    the continued use of the same word or word pattern
  26. sarcasm
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  27. satire
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  28. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  29. symbolism
    the practice of investing things with arbitrary meaning
  30. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
Created on Thu Jan 12 15:13:54 EST 2017 (updated Wed Mar 29 15:30:43 EDT 2017)

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