Figures of Speech

Dr. Ravi P. Reddy (India)
"Figures of Speech" are the language tricks used to decorate your speech and make it more persuasive.
30 words 36 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
  2. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
  3. anticlimax
    a disappointing decline after a previous rise
  4. antithesis
    exact opposite
  5. aphorism
    a short pithy instructive saying
  6. bathos
    insincere or overdone sentimentality
  7. circumlocution
    a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things
  8. climax
    arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness
  9. ellipsis
    omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences
  10. euphemism
    an inoffensive expression substituted for an offensive one
  11. exclamation
    an abrupt excited utterance
  12. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  13. innuendo
    an indirect and usually malicious implication
  14. inversion
    the reversal of the normal order of words
  15. irony
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  16. litotes
    understatement for rhetorical effect
  17. malapropism
    misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar
  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. pleonasm
    using more words than necessary
  24. pun
    a humorous play on words
  25. satire
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  26. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  27. spoonerism
    transposition of initial consonants in a pair of words
  28. superlative
    an exaggerated expression, usually of praise
  29. tautology
    a statement that is necessarily true
  30. zeugma
    rhetorical use of a word to govern two or more words
Created on Sat Feb 09 17:55:39 EST 2013 (updated Tue Mar 05 12:02:39 EST 2013)

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