FIGURES OF SPEECH

Figures of speech are words or phrases that depart from straightforward literal language.
In other words, a figure of speech is a departure from the usual form of expression and
are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness, expression, or clarity.
1. SIMILE
In simile two unlike things are explicitly compared. For example, “She is like a fairy”.
A simile is introduced by words such as “like”, “so”, “as”, etc.
 My daughter dances like an angel.
 Wandered lonely as a cloud. Wordsworth
 Sally whistled like a bird.
2. METAPHOR
It is an informal or implied simile in which words like, as, so are omitted. Among the
most common metaphors are those that refer to our senses of touch, taste, sight, hearing,
and smell. For example, “He is like a lion” (Simile) and “He is a lion” (metaphor).
 She is a star of our family.
 The childhood of the world; the anger of the tempest; the deceitfulness of
 the riches: wine is a mocker.
 She is now in the sunset of her days.
3. PERSONIFICATION
Personification is an attribution of personal nature, intelligence or character to inanimate
objects or abstract notions. A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or
abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
 Little sorrows sit and weep. (Boccaccio)
 The dish ran away with the spoon. (Blake)
 The ocean roared.
 The tea kettle screamed out in the kitchen.
 The lonely train whistle wailed in the distance.
4. METONYMY
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it
is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty"). Metonymy is also the rhetorical
strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, such as
describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual.
 The government says…
 The White House asked the public to remain calm during the crisis.
 The suits at the large investment firms will finally have their day in court.
 I have never read Milton. = the works of Milton.
5. APOSTROPHE
Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses someone (or
something) that is not present or cannot respond in reality. The entity being addressed
can be an absent, dead, or imaginary person, but it can also be an inanimate object (like
stars or the ocean), an abstract idea (like love or fate), or a being (such as a Muse or
god).
Apostrophe happens in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" as the narrator starts out speaking to
an absent "thee": "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" It also appears in the play
"Hamlet" when the title character is in a rage about his mother marrying Claudius.
Hamlet calls out to the abstraction "frailty" in Act 1: "Frailty, thy name is woman!"
6. HYPERBOLE
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, an extravagant
statement.
 These books weigh a ton.
 After a long day, the ASC instructor felt at least 158 years old.
7. SYNECDOCHE
Synecdoche is the understanding of one thing by means of another. A figure of speech
in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the
general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it.
 Give us this day our daily bread.
 She worked two jobs because she had six hungry mouths to feed.
 Many hands make light work.
8. ALLUSION
An allusion is a reference, typically brief, to a person, place, thing, event, or other
literary work with which the reader is presumably familiar. As a literary device, allusion
allows a writer to compress a great deal of meaning and significance into a word
or phrase. However, allusions are only effective to the extent that they are recognized
and understood by the reader, and that they are properly inferred and interpreted by the
reader. If an allusion is obscure or misunderstood, it can lose effectiveness by confusing
the reader.

 His smile is like kryptonite to me. (Superman’s weakness)

 She felt like she had a  golden ticket. (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
 That guy is young, scrappy, and hungry. (Hamilton)

9. EUPHEMISM
The use of an agreeable or inoffensive expression, mild or indirect word or expression
for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant,
offensive or embarrassing.
 He is telling us a fairy tale. (a lie)
 He has fallen asleep. (he is dead)
10. IRONY OR SARCASM
Irony is a figure of speech in which there is a contradiction of expectation between what
is said and what is really meant. It is characterized by an incongruity, a contrast,
between reality and appearance.
  His argument was as clear as mud.
 The two identical twins were arguing. One of them told the other: "You're
ugly"
 The thieves robbed the police station.

11. PUN
This consists of a play on the various meanings of a word. Its effect is often ludicrous.
• Is life worth living? It depends upon the liver.
• Obviously, the constitution is against prostitution and congress is against progress.
(con means against and pro means for)
12. EPIGRAM
It is a brief pointed saying. It couples words which apparently contradict each other. The
language of the epigram is remarkable for its brevity. Examples are as under:
• The child is the father of the man. (Wordsworth)
• Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
• The art lies in concealing art.
• Silence is sometimes more eloquent than words.
• Conspicuous by its absence.
13. ANTITHESIS
In antithesis, a striking opposition or contrast of words is made in the same sentence in
order to secure emphasis. For example,
• To err is human, to forgive divine.
• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
14. OXYMORON
It is a figure of speech which combines two seemingly contradictory or incongruous
words for sharp emphasis or effect. For example,
• “darkness visible” (Milton);
• “make haste slowly” (Suetonius)
• “loving hate” (Romeo and Juliet)
15. LITOTES
It is the opposite of hyperbole. Here an affirmative is conveyed by negation of the
opposite. For example,
• He is no dullard.
• I am not a little
• He is not a bad sort.
16. INTERROGATION
This is a rhetorical mode of affirming or denying something more strongly than could
be done in ordinary language. Examples,
• Who is here so base that would be a bondman?
• Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman?
• Who is here so vile that will not love his country? (Shakespeare)

17. EXCLAMATION
It is used for strong expression of feelings. For examples, O lift me as a wave, a leaf, a
cloud I fall upon the thorns of life; I bleed!
20. ALLITERATION
The repetition of the same letter or syllable at the beginning of two or more words is
called alliteration. For example,
• By apt Alliteration’s artful - a
• Glittering through the gloomy - g
• The furrow follows - f
21. ONOMATOPOEIA
The formation of a word whose sound is made to suggest or echo the sense as in
cuckoo, bang, growl, hiss.
• The moan of doves in immemorial elms and murmur of innumerable bees.
• Rend with the tremendous sound your ears asunder with guns, drum,
trumpet, blunderbuss, and thunder.
22. CIRCUMLOCUTION
This consists of expressing some fact or idea in a roundabout way, instead of stating it
at once. For example,
• The viewless couriers of the air. =(the wind)
• That statement of his was purely an effort of imagination. = (a fiction)
23. PARALELLISM
Parallelism is the repetition of grammatical elements in writing and speaking.
Parallelism influences the grammatical structure of sentences but can also impact the
meaning of thoughts and ideas being presented. It may feature repetition of a word or
phrase for emphasis, or it can be used as a literary device to create a parallel position
between opposite ideas through grammatical elements as a means of emphasizing
contrast.
Parallelism takes many forms in literature, such as anaphora, antithesis, asyndeton,
epistrophe, etc. Parallelism is a literary device in itself, but it is also a category under
which other figures of speech fall, such as those mentioned previously. Therefore, these
other literary devices and figures of speech are specific types of parallelism.
One of the most well-known examples of parallelism is featured in Neil Armstrong’s
statement, made as he stepped on the moon:
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The structure of the two noun phrases in this sentence is similar due to the repeated use
of “one.”
24. SYMBOL
A symbol is a person, place, or thing comes to represent an abstract idea or concept -- it
is anything that stands for something beyond itself.
Scales of justice
Lady liberty
The doves of freedom
The land of the free and the home of the brave
25. HYPOPHORA
Hypophora is a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question, and then
immediately provides an answer to that question. It is also known as “antipophora,” or
“anthypophora.” At first look, examples of hypophora may seem similar to rhetorical
question examples.
However, the basic difference between hypophora and a rhetorical question is that, in a
rhetorical question, the answer is not provided by the writer, since it does not require an
answer. Such as, “… for if we lose the ability to perceive our faults, what is the good of
living on?” (Marcus Aurelius). However, in hypophora, the writer first poses a question,
and then answers that question immediately, such as in this example:
“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the
most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of
loneliness can be cured.”
26. UNDERSTATEMENT

An understatement is a figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to

intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is. For example,
suppose a team loses to its opponent 50 to 0 in a soccer match, and the captain of the
team says in a post-match ceremony, “We did not do well,” it is an understatement
because he is trying to decrease the intensity of the loss.

An understatement usually has an ironic effect, as an equally intense response is

expected in severe situations, but the statement in response is the opposite of what was
expected. For instance, your friend returns your new coat with a large wine stain on the
front of it. In response, you make an understatement, “It doesn’t look too bad.”
Therefore, an understatement is opposite to another figure of speech, hyperbole, which
is an overstatement.