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50 lists of Figures of Speech with examples

 In literature and writing, a figure of speech (also called stylistic device or
rhetorical device) is the use of any of a variety of techniques to give an auxiliary
meaning, idea, or feeling.
 Sometimes a word diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase has a
specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it.
Examples are metaphor, simile, or personification.
 Stylistic devices often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity.
Here is a list of some of the most important figures of speech:
 Accumulation
 Accumulation is a figure of speech in which the arguments previously stated are
presented again in a forceful manner. The word accumulation comes from Latin
and it means mass, pile or heap.
 (e.g., “A generation goes and a generation comes, yet the earth remains
forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and rushes back again to the place from
which it rises. The wind blows south, then returns to the north, round and round
goes the wind, on its rounds it circulates. All streams flow to the sea, yet the sea
does not fill up.” (Ecclesiastes, The Old Testament )
 Accismus
 Feigned or pretended refusal of something which is actually desired.
 (e.g., How kind, but you need it more than me.)
 Adjunction
 Adjunction is a figure of speech in which a word, phrase or clause is placed at
the beginning or the end of a sentence.
 (e.g., Fades physical beauty with disease or age)
 Adnomination
 Adnomination is the repetition of words with a change in letter or sound.
 (e.g., He is nobody from nowhere and he knows nothing. )
 Aganactesis
 A feeling of deep indignation leads to an exclaimed outburst.
 (e.g., Good grief! What on earth are you doing!!)

 Alliteration
 Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.
 (e.g., sweet smell of success)

 Allusion
 The act of alluding is to make indirect reference. It is a literary device, a figure of
speech that quickly stimulates different ideas and associations using only a
couple of words.
 (e.g., David was being such a scrooge!. (Scrooge" is the allusion, and it refers to
Charles Dicken's novel, A Christmas Carol. Scrooge was very greedy and unkind,
which David was being compared to.)
 Anaphora
 Anaphora is a stylistic device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at
the beginnings of neighboring clauses to give them emphasis. This rhetorical
device is contrasted with epiphora, also called epistrophe, which consists of
repeating words at the end of clauses.
 (e.g., Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!
William Shakespeare, King John, II,)
 Antanaclasis
 Antanaclasis is a rhetorical device in which a word is repeated and whose
meaning changes in the second instance. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun.
 (e.g., If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm. - The
American football coach Vince Lombardi to his team .)
 Anticlimax
 Anticlimax refers to a figure 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.
 (e.g., She is a great writer, a mother and a good humorist.)
 Antiphrasis
 Antiphrasis is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used to mean the
opposite of its normal meaning to create ironic humorous effect. From the
Greek : anti "opposite" and phrasis, "diction". The adjective form is antiphrastic.
 (e.g., She's so beautiful. She has an attractive long nose. )
 Antithesis
 Antithesis is a figure of speech which refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or
contrasting ideas. It involves the bringing out of a contrast in the ideas by an
obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a parallel
grammatical structure.
 (e.g., "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." - Goethe.)
 Apostrophe
 Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or
writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality
or idea.
 (e.g., “Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again." Paul
Simon, The Sounds of Silence)

 Assonance
 Assonance is a figure of speech that is found more often in verse than in prose.
It refers to the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within
phrases or sentences.
 (e.g., "the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" - The Raven By
Edgar Allan Poe
 Cataphora
  Cataphora refers to a figure of speech where an earlier expression refers to or
describes a forward expression. Cataphora is the opposite of anaphora, a
reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse.
 (e.g., After he had received his orders, the soldier left the barracks. (he is also a
cataphoric reference to the soldier which is mentioned later in the discourse)
 Categoria
 Categoria is the direct description of another person's faults.
 (e.g., You are lazy, careless and unlikable. Why should I trust you?)
 Chiasmus
 Chiasmus is a figure of speech in which words, grammatical constructions, or
concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form. In other
words, the clauses display inverted parallelism.
 (e.g., He knowingly led and we followed blindly )
 Climax
 Climax refers to a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are
arranged in order of increasing importance.
 (e.g., "There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love. But the
greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13)
 Correctio
 Correctio is the use of a corrective extension to a statement.
 (e.g., He is the best warrior in the region -- nay, the entire country!
 Dysphemism
 Dysphemism is the use of a harsh, more offensive word instead of one
considered less harsh. Dysphemism is often contrasted with euphemism.
Dysphemisms are generally used to shock or offend.
 (e.g., Snail mail for postal mail.)
 Ellipsis
 Ellipsis (or elliptical construction) is the omission of a word or words. It refers to
constructions in which words are left out of a sentence but the sentence can still
be understood.
 (e.g., Lacy can do something about the problem, but I don’t know what (she can
do.)
 Euphemism
 Euphemism is used to express a mild, indirect, or vague term to substitute for a
harsh, blunt, or offensive term. Euphemism is often contrasted with
dysphemism. Some euphemisms intend to amuse, while others intend to give
positive appearances to negative events or even mislead entirely.
 (e.g., Going to the other side for death.)
 Ecphonesis
 Ecphonesis is an exclamation that is used for emphasis and grabbing
attention.
 (e.g., Look out!! I'm going to be down your street tonight.)
 Epigram
  An epigram refers to a concise, witty, memorable, and sometimes surprising or
satirical statement. The origin of the word epigram is Greek, from epigraphein
(epi- + graphein to write)
 (e.g., The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." (Tacitus)
 Epiphora (or epistrophe)
 Epiphora (also called epistrophe) is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating
a sequence of words at the end of neighboring clauses to give them emphasis.
This stylistic device is contrasted with anaphora which consists of repeating
words at the beginning of clauses.
 (e.g., There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no
Northern problem. There is only an American problem. (Lyndon B. Johnson in
We Shall Overcome).
 Hyperbole
 Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It
may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not
meant to be taken literally. Hyperboles are exaggerations to create emphasis or
effect.
 (e.g., I was so hungry; I could eat a horse!)

 Hypophora
 Hypophora is a figure of speech in which the speaker raises a question and then
answers it. Hypophora is different from rhetorical questions. In a rhetorical
question the answer is not provided by the writer. In hypophora, however, the
writer poses the question and answers it immediately after. Hypophora is also
called anthypophora or antipophora.
 (e.g., "You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and
air, with all our might and with all the strength." — Winston Churchill, 4 June
1940.)
 Irony
 Irony is a figure of speech in which there is a contradiction of expectation
between what is said what is really meant. It is characterized by an incongruity,
a contrast, between reality and appearance. There are three types of irony:
verbal, dramatic and situational.
 (e.g., It is a contrast between what is said and what is meant. – Verbal Irony)
 Isocolon
 Isocolon occurs where parallel parts of a sentence are the same length.
 (e.g. Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered)
 Litotes
 Litotes is a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an
affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. For example, instead of saying
that someone is mean, you can say he is not very generous.
 (e.g., She is not very beautiful.)
 Metathesis
 Metathesis is the rearrangement of letters within a word.
  (e.g., He frevently plied his ardour.)
 Oxymoron
 An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines incongruous or contradictory
terms. The plural is oxymorons or oxymora.
(e.g., An oximoron can be made of an adjective and a noun: • Dark light • Deafening
silence • Living dead • Open secret • Virtual reality)
 Personification
 Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are
attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object
 (e.g., Notice the use of personification in William Blake's poem below:
Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room.
"Ah, William, we're weary of weather," said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
"Our traveling habits have tired us. Can you give us a room with a view?"
They arranged themselves at the window and counted the steps of the sun,
and they both took root in the carpet where the topaz tortoises run.
William Blake (1757-1827)
 Puns
 A pun, also called paronomasia, involves a word play which suggests two or
more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-
sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. Puns are
constructions used in jokes and idioms whose usage and meaning are entirely
local to a particular language and its culture. To be understood, puns require a
large vocabulary.
 (e.g., "Atheism is a non-prophet institution" The word "prophet" is put in place
of its homophone "profit", altering the common phrase "non-profit institution".)
 Merism
 Merism is a figure of speech by which something is referred to by a conventional
phrase that enumerates several of its constituents or traits.
(e.g., High and low. (To search high and low means to look for something everywhere)
 Metalepsis
 Metalepsis is a figure of speech in which reference is made to something by
means of another thing that is remotely related to it, either through a causal
relationship, or through another figure of speech.
 (e.g., Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless
towers of Ilium?)
- Chistopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
 Metaphor
 Unlike simile, metaphor (from the Greek language: meaning "transfer") is
language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of
speech that compares two or more things not using like or as. In the simplest
case, this takes the form:
X - is - Y
 (e.g., All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They
have their exits and their entrances; (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7).
 Metonymy
  Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not called by its
own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing
or concept.
 (e.g., The White House. (Referring to the American administration.)
 Paradox
 A paradox is a statement (or set of statements) where a seemingly
impossible contradiction is presented.
 (e.g., Youth is wasted on the young. (but how can young people know the
value of youth without not having it?)

 Periphrases
 Periphrasis is circumlocution, talking around the subject rather than
directly what perhaps might be said in the circumstances.

 (e.g., It is not that James is welcome or otherwise, or that he is

sometimes here or not. I do wonder, though, if he might be thinking
what it's all about. (= I don't like James)

 Psittacism

 Psittacism is parrot-like repetition.

 (e.g., Who's a clever person? Who's a clever person? You!)
 Simile
 A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with
the word "like" or "as". It takes the form of:
•X is (not) like Y
•X is (not) as Y
•X is (not) similar to Y
 (e.g., He fights like a lion.)
 Synecdoche
 Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to
represent the whole or the whole of something is used to represent part of it. It
is considered to be a special kind of metonymy.
 (e.g., Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing - A hundred head of
cattle (using the part head to refer to the whole animal)

 Synonymia
 Repeating synonyms for amplification.
 (e.g., You fool! You dolt! You unmitigated idiot!!)

 Scesis Onamaton
  Scesis onamaton is the omission of the only verb in a phrase or
sentence.

 (e.g., Later, alligator! (Instead of 'see you later, alligator')

 Tautology
 Tautology is a statement that says the same thing twice in different ways, or a
statement that is unconditionally true by the way it is phrased.
(e.g., Forward planning.)
 Tapinosis
 Tapinosis is the use of speech in understatement and making something
smaller than it actually is.
 (e.g., Yes, I know I saved the boy, but I didn't really think and anyone
would have done the same.)
 Tricolon
 Tricolon is the use of three successive sentence parts of equal length and
increasing power.
 (e.g., We will fight! We will kill!! We will destroy!!)

 Understatement
 Understatement is a figure of speech used by writers or speakers to deliberately
make a situation seem less important or serious than it really is.
 (e.g., "It stings a bit" - a soldier describing the pain he feels after he has just lost
his leg.)

 Zeugma and syllepsis

 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.
 (e.g., he took his hat and his leave.)