Precious Jel M. Villanueva St.

John – Humanities and Social Sciences

Figures Of Speech

Alliteration

 The child bounced the ball at the backyard barbeque.

 A girl dunked the delicious donut in dairy creamer.

Anaphora

 Five years have passed;

Five summers, with the length of
Five long winters! And again I hear these waters...
 Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair

Assonance

 The light of the fire is a sight.

 Try as I might, the kite did not fly.

Hyperbole

 That was the easiest question in the world.

 I can smell pizza from a mile away.

Irony

Verbal:

 As sunny as a winter day in Alaska.

 This steal is a tender as a leather shoe.

Dramatic

 In Romeo and Juliet, the former thinks Juliet is dead, but the audiences know
that she only took a sleeping potion.
 In horror movies, the audience is aware that there is a killer in the house, but
the character does not and they proceed to enter.

Situational

 A fire station burns down

 A pilot with a fear of heights.

Metaphor

 His cotton candy words did not appeal to her taste.

 I was lost in a sea of nameless faces.

Simile

 That little girl is as sweet as sugar.

 Her dancing was a smooth as a flowing river.
Metonymy

 The big house—Refers to prison

 The crown—a royal person

Onomatopoeia

 The buzzing bee flew away.

 The books fell on the table with a loud thump.

Personification

 The wind whispered through dry grass.

 The fire swallowed the entire forest.

Pun

 A pyrotechnician should know how fireworks.

 I work as a baker because I knead the dough.

Synecdoche

 Referring to the alphabet as the "ABCs."

 Referring to a helper as a "hand."

Understatement

 The storm brought us a little bit of rain today.

 There’s some water in the Atlantic Ocean.

Paradox

 Your enemy’s friend is your enemy.

 I am nobody.

Litotes

 They do not seem the happiest couple around.

 The two concepts are not unlike each other.

Euphemism

 Do it or come together in reference to a sexual act.

 Between jobs for unemployed.

Antithesis

 Man proposes, God disposes.

 You are easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart.

Apostrophe

 Oh, rose, how sweet you smell and how bright you look!
 Dear love, please don't shoot me with your Cupid's bow.

Oxymoron

 Born dead
 All alone