Figures of Speech | All figures of Speech

1. SIMILIE

A simile is a comparison of two different things using 'like', or 'as' or 'such'

Ex:- He is like a lion.

Sparrow is like a aircraft

2. METAPHOR

(Direct Simile) A metaphor is a comparison of two things without using Like, as or such etc.

Ex:- My son's stomach is like a bottomless pit.

---- You're my sunshine

---- Mary's voice is music to my ears

---- She is the apple of my eye.

3. CONCEIT

(Far-fetched simile) it's a figure of speech where two polar opposite or dissimilar objects are compared using similes and metaphors.

Ex:- Love is like rose.

---- Life is a mountain.

4. PERSONIFICATION

Giving human qualities to animals or objects.

Ex:- The sun greeted everyone ''Good morning".

---- The book read itself to me.

---- Those cookies are calling my name.

---- Clouds were dancing.

5. ANTHROPOMORPHISM

Anthropo-human (from: Greek), Morpho-to change 

The attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, object.

---- Anthropomorphism is a literary device that can be defined as a technique in which a writer ascribes human traits, ambitions, emotions, or entire behaviours to animals, nonhuman beings, natural phenomena or objects.

---- Capabilities of human in cartoons or animals is called Anthropomorphism.

---- Anthropomorphism is also a type of personification that gives human characteristics to nonhuman or objects, especially animals. However, there's a slight difference between these two. 

Personification is an act of giving human Characteristics to animals or objects to create imagery while Anthropomorphism aims to make an animal or objects behave and appear like it's a human being.

Ex:- Pinnochio.

6. PUN(play on words, or wordplay)

means a word that gives two meanings.

---- A humorous play on words 

---- Make a play on words.

Ex:- Ambassador lies abroad for the betterment of nation. (Lies has two meanings)

7. OXYMORON

It's a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression.

Ex:- '' Sweet sorrow ", " Cold fire ", " Screaming silence ", "mournful happiness", "Deafening silence".

8. RHETORICAL QUESTION

It's question which is not ask for an answer.

That doesn't expect answer.

But it's used for emphasis or stress.

Ex:- Is it our country?

---- Didn't you eat meal?

---- Is it a life?

---- Is it called a freedom of expression?

---- Is it what we have wanted for long time.

9. ASSONANCE

This device is used in poetry,

Some vowel sounds of the words in a sentence or line.

---- Repeating a vowel sounds through out a sentence phrase, paragraph, or entire piece of writing (a.e.i.o.u sometimes y)

Ex:- The cat ran after the alligator who was trying to assist an alarmed drowning armadillo to get across the river.

---- Talk Shalk, need indeed.

---- (a) For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore

---- (e) Therefore all the seasons shall be sweet to thee

---- (I) From what I have tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.

---- (o) Or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn

---- (u) Uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.

10. CONSONANCE:- Starting consonants must be same or the repetition of consonant sounds.

Ex:- The fair breeze blew

---- The white foam flew

---- The furrow followed free.

11. ALLITERATION:- The use of the same beginning consonant sound in a line or verse.

Ex:- Peter Piper picked a packet of pickled peppers.

12. IRONY:- A thing's opposite meaning 

---- Sometimes positive and negative.

---- Irony is using words where meaning is the opposite of their usual meaning.

Ex:- You're Shakespeare.

---- You're a bad boy.

---- After begging for cat and finally getting one, 

She found out she is allergic. 

---- A traffic cop gets suspended for not paying 

his parking tickets.

---- The Titanic was said to unsinkable.

---- Dramatic irony is knowing the killer is hiding 

in a closet in a scary movie.

13. SARCASM:- It means to hurt or insult someone, but not directly.

---- Positively produce the negative things 

Ex:- Oh! You're beautiful.

---- I know you're trustworthy.

14. HYPERBOLE:- Telling a normal thing as a big blunder, in other words exaggerating. 

---- For emphasis or effect. 

Ex:- halaba hoo bathroom wayo

---- oh! He talked her!

---- I have told a thousand times.

---- It costs a billion dollar.

---- I could do this forever.

---- She is older than dirt.

---- Everybody knows that.

15. EUPHEMISM:- It means sugar coating, to talk in sweet words or mannerfully.

Ex:- Uncle keith passed away last year.

---- I have to spend a penny 

---- You're an idiot:- You've an interesting point of view.

---- leave me alone:- I really need a bit of peace and quiet.

---- Passed away:- died

---- Correctional faculty:- jail

---- Between jobs:- unemployed

---- Collateral death:- civilian deaths

---- Liquidation:- murder

---- Spending more time with family:- fired 

---- Preowned:- used

---- Sanitation engineer:- garbage man

---- Senior citizen:- Olden people

---- In the family way:- pregnant 

---- The deceased/the late:- the dead

---- Undertaker/mortician:- burier 

---- Mental institution:- Lunatic asylum 

16. ALLUSION:- It's a casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event.

Ex:- If it doesn't stop raining, I'm going to build an ark.

---- He's a real Romeo with ladies.

---- The news hit me like a truck.

---- He's a Plato.

17. IMAGERY:- To image in mind

i. Sight Imagery: bed was painted of flowers (now you'll create image in your mind)

ii. Sound Imagery: His sound was like a acute whistle that could break our ear functioning.

iii. Taste Imagery: It was bitter taste like of lemon and vinegar.

iv. Touching Imagery:- Her face was like a cotton.

 v. Smelling Imagery:- It was smell like a burning clothes.

18. ADJUNCTION:- It's figure of Speech in which a word, phrase or clause is placed at the beginning or at the end of a sentence.

Ex:- Fades physical beauty with disease or age.

-- Either with disease or age physical beauty fades.

---- High the birds flew

-- The birds flew high 

19. ANAPHORA:- It's a technique where several phrases or verses begin with the same word or words. 

Ex:- I came, I saw, I conquered.

---- Mad world, mad kings, mad composition.

---- We laughed, we loved, we sang.

---- With malice towards none, with charity for all, with the firmness in the right.

---- We shall not flag or fail, we shall go on to the end.

20. ANTICLIMAX: It refers to a figures of speech in which statements gradually descend in order of importance. Unlike climax,

Anticlimax is the arrangement of a series of words, phrases or clauses in order of decreasing importance.

Ex:- She is a great writer, a mother and a humorist.

---- He lost his family, his car, and a cell phone.

21. ANTITHESIS:- it means opposite and is used as a literary device to put two contrasting ideas together. This emphasises the difference between the two ideas and adds interest to writing. 

Ex:- Day and Night

---- Snow White and wicked witch

---- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times 

---- Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven 

---- To err is human; to forgive is divine 

---- Give Everyman thy ear, But few thy voice.

22. CHIASMUS:- Inversion in the second of two parallel phrases. 

---- A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. 

Ex:- You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.

---- Nice to see you….. To see you nice.

23. CLIMAX:- It refers to figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance.

Ex:- Let a man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country and his God.

---- When you step out into the jungle, there are three things that you need to be aware of, the time of the day, your whereabouts and wild animals.

---- He is uncomplicated, upright, strict, austere and inspirational.

24. EPIGRAM: A epigram refers to a concise, witty, memorable, and sometimes surprising or

satirical statement. 

Ex:-  The more corrupt the state, the more numerous laws.

---- Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.

---- I can resist everything but temptation.

---- Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put and end to mankind.

---- No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.

25. LITOTES: It employs and understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite expressions.

Ex:- They do not seem the happiest couple around.

---- The ice cream was not too bad.

---- New York is not an ordinary city.

---- Your comments on politics are not useless.

---- You're not as young as you used to be.

---- I can not disagree with your point of view.

26. METONYMY: A metonymy is a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word.

Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known Characteristics of the word.

Ex:- Crown - in place of a royal person.

---- The White House - in place of President.

---- The suits - in place of business people 

---- Dish - for an entire plate of food

---- Cup - for a mug 

---- The restaurant - to refer to the staff.

27. PARADOX: Paradox can prove to be very revealing about human nature and the way that 

we speak. If someone says to you " I'm a compulsive liar", do you believe them or not?

That statement in itself is a paradox, because 

It's self contradictory, which is precisely what a paradox is.

---- (Logic) a statement that contradicts itself 

Ex:- Wise fool

---- Bittersweet

---- I can resist anything but temptation

---- I'm a compulsive liar.

---- A rich man is no more richer than a poor man.

---- I always lie 

28. SYNECDOCHE: It's when a part represents the whole or the whole is represented by a part.

Ex:- Wheels - A car.

---- The police - One policeman.

---- Plastic - credit cards.

---- Coke - Any cold drink.

---- Army - soldier.

29. TAUTOLOGY: Useless repetition,

---- (logic) a statement that is necessarily true.

-- the statement 'he's brave or he's not brave' is a tautology.

---- It is a repetitive use of phrases or words which have similar meanings. In simple words,

It's expressing the same thing, an idea or saying

two or more times.

Ex:- 'Repeat that again' and 'reiterate again'

To repeat or reiterate something is to do or say something again. 

---- 'Shout it out loud' 

When a person shouts, it's always loud.

30. UNDERSTATEMENT:- A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. 

Ex:- An atomic blast is somewhat noisy.

---- Hitler was not a nice person.

---- It was windy in new Orleans during hurricane Katrina.

---- Bill Gates is financially secured.

---- The 1906 San Francisco earthquake cause some damage.

31. ZEUGMA:- Zeugma which is often also called 

syllepsis, or semantic syllepsis, is a construction 

where a single word is used with two other parts

of a sentence but must be understood differently in relation to each.

Ex:- He took his hat and his leave.

---- She broke his car and his heart.

---- He works his work, I mine.

---- They saw lots of thunder and lightening.