Agglutination (the process of forming new words from existing ones by adding affixes to them, like

shame + less + ness → shamelessness)

Back-formation (removing seeming affixes from existing words, like forming edit from editor)

Blending (a word formed by joining parts of two or more older words, like smog, which comes from
smoke and fog)

Acronym (a word formed from initial letters of the words in a phrase, like English laser from light
amplified by stimulated emission of radiation)

Clipping (morphology) (taking part of an existing word, like forming ad from advertisement)

Compound (linguistics) (a word formed by stringing together older words, like earthquake)

Incorporation (linguistics) (a compound of a verb and an object or particle, like intake)

Conversion (linguistics) (forming a new word from an existing identical one, like forming the verb green
from the existing adjective)

Loanword (a word borrowed from another language, like cliché, which comes from French)

Onomatopoeia (the creation of words that imitate natural sounds, like the bird name cuckoo)

Figurative language changes the literal meaning, to make a meaning fresh or clearer, to express
complexity, to capture a physical or sensory effect, or to extend meaning. Figurative language is also
called figures of speech. The most common figures of speech are these:

• A simile: a comparison of two dissimilar things using "like" or "as", e.g., "my love is like a red, red rose"
(Robert Burns).

• A metaphor: a comparison of two dissimilar things which does not use "like" or "as," e.g., "my love is a
red, red rose" (Lilia Melani).

• Personification: treating abstractions or inanimate objects as human, that is, giving them human
attributes, powers, or feelings, e.g., "nature wept" or "the wind whispered many truths to me."

• hyperbole: exaggeration, often extravagant; it may be used for serious or for comic effect.

• Apostrophe: a direct address to a person, thing, or abstraction, such as "O Western Wind," or "Ah,
Sorrow, you consume us." Apostrophes are generally capitalized.

• Onomatopoeia: a word whose sounds seem to duplicate the sounds they describe--hiss, buzz, bang,
murmur, meow, growl.
• Oxymoron: a statement with two parts which seem contradictory; examples: sad joy, a wise fool, the
sound of silence, or Hamlet's saying, "I must be cruel only to be kind"

• Allegory. A figurative work in which a surface narrative carries a secondary, symbolic or metaphorical
meaning. In The Faerie Queene, for example, Red Cross Knight is a heroic knight in the literal narrative,
but also a figure representing Everyman in the Christian journey. Many works contain allegories or are
allegorical in part, but not many are entirely allegorical. A good example of a fully allegorical work is

• Blank Verse. Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

• Free verse. Verse that has neither regular rhyme nor regular meter. Free verse often uses cadences
rather than uniform metrical feet.

• Sonnet. A fourteen line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme. The two
main types of sonnet are the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean. The Petrarchan Sonnet is
divided into two main sections, the octave (first eight lines) and the sestet (last six lines). The octave
presents a problem or situation which is then resolved or commented on in the sestet. The most
common rhyme scheme is A-B-B-A A-B-B-A C-D-E C-D-E, though there is flexibility in the sestet, such as
C-D-C D-C-D.

• The Shakespearean Sonnet, (perfected though not invented by Shakespeare), contains three quatrains
and a couplet, with more rhymes (because of the greater difficulty finding rhymes in English). The most
common rhyme scheme is A-B-A-B C-D-C-D E-F-E-F G-G. In Shakespeare, the couplet often undercuts the
thought created in it