What are the 14 figures of speech and their examples?

Answer 1

TOP 20 FIGURE OF SPEECH

1.ALLITERATION

Repetition of an initial consonant sound.

• A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow.
• Guinness is good for you.
• Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed, and cross."

2ANAPHORA

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

• We shallgo on to the end.
• We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.
• We shall depend our island.

3.ANTITHESES

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

• Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing
• Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.
• Hillary has soldiered on, damned if she does, damned if she doesn't, like most powerful women, expected to be tough as nails and warm as toast at the same time.

4. APOSTROPHE

Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.

• "O western wind, when wilt thou blow

  That the small rain down can rain?"

• "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone,Without a dream in my heart,Without a love on my own."
• "Death be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me."

5.ASSONANCE

Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.

• "Those images that yet

  Fresh images beget,

  That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea."

• "If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced."

• "The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots."

6.CHIASMUS

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

• "Nice to see you, to see you, nice!"
• "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."
• "In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president delivers; it's whether the president delivers on the speeches."

7.EUPHEMISM

The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

• We'll see you when you get back from image enhancement camp.
• You've got a prime figure. You really have, you know.

8.HYPERBOLE

An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

• "I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far."
• "He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus.
• "I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it. When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor."

9.IRONY

The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.

• "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
• He is as smart as a soap dish.
• I have no doubt your theatrical performance will receive the praise it so richly deserves.

10.LITOTES

A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

• "The grave's a fine a private place,

  But none, I think, do there embrace."

11.METAPHOR

An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

• Love is a lie.
• Life is going through time.
• You are the light in my life.

12.METONYMY

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.

• "Fear gives wings."
• "Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood."
• "I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver Wig, and I never saw her again."

13.ONOMATOPOEIA

The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

• "Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong. The little train rumbled over the tracks."
• "Brrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng!An alarm clock clanged in the dark and silent room."
• "I'm getting married in the morning!

  Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime."

14.OXYMORON

A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

• "How is it possible to have a civil war?"
• "The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep."
• "A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."

15.PARADOX

A statement that appears to contradict itself.

• "The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot."
• "If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness."

16.PERSONIFICATION

A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.

• "Oreo: Milk's favorite cookie."
• "The road isn't built that can make it breathe hard!"

17.PUN

A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.

• A vulture boards a plane, carrying two dead possums. The attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

• Kings worry about a receding heir line.

18.SIMILE

A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.

• "Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong."
• "You know life, life is rather like opening a tin of sardines. We're all of us looking for the key."

19.SYNECDOCHE

A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole (for example, ABCsfor alphabet) or the whole for a part ("Englandwon the World Cup in 1966″).

• "The sputtering economy could make the difference if you're trying to get a deal on a new set of wheels."
• General Motors announced cutbacks.

20.UNDERSTATEMENT

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

• "The grave's a fine and private place,But none,I think,do there embrace."

• "I am just going outside and may be some time."

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Answer 2

The Top 20 Figures of Speech

Alliteration

Repetition of an initial consonant sound.

"The daily diary of the American dream."

(slogan of The Wall Street Journal)

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

· "I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."

(Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely)

Antithesis

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

· "You're easy on the eyes

Hard on the heart."

(Terri Clark)

· "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

(Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

Apostrophe

Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.

· "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone

Without a dream in my heart

Without a love of my own."

(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")

· "I believe it is the lost wisdom of my grandfather

Whose ways were his own and who died before I could ask.

"Forerunner, I would like to say, silent pilot,

Little dry death, future,

Your indirections are as strange to me

As my own. I know so little that anything

You might tell me would be a revelation."

(W.S. Merwin, "Sire")

· "O stranger of the future!

O inconceivable being!

Assonance

Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.

"I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless."

(Thin Lizzy, "With Love")

Chiasmus

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

· "Nice to see you, to see you, nice!"

(British TV entertainer Bruce Forsyth)

· "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."

(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, Knopf, 2006)

· "I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."

(Ovid)

· "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

(William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i)

· "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."

(Samuel Johnson)

Euphemism

The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

· Pre-owned for used or second-hand; enhanced interrogation for torture; wind for belch or fart; convenience fee for surcharge

Hyperbole

An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

· "Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together."

(Kent Brockman, The Simpsons)

"I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse!"

Irony

The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.

· "It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a dirty word."

(William Zinsser)

· "I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it."

(Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons)

Litotes

A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

· The grave's a fine a private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace."

(Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")

· "We are not amused."

(attributed to Queen Victoria)

· "I'm not doing this for my health."

(O.J. Simpson, in a paid appearance at a horror comic book convention

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

"The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner."

(Cynthia Ozick, "Rosa")

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.

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.

"Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood."

(Conan O'Brien)

"The B.L.T. left without paying."

(waitress referring to a customer)

Onomatopoeia

The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

Plop

Pow

Wow

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

"act naturally," "original copy," "found missing," "alone together," "peace force," "definite possibility," "terribly pleased," "real phony," "ill health," "turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp," "alone together," "pretty ugly"

Paradox

A statement that appears to contradict itself.

·

· "War is peace."

"Freedom is slavery."

"Ignorance is strength."

(George Orwell, 1984)

· "There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to."

(Joseph Heller, Catch-22)

· "Paradox of Success: the more successful a policy is in warding off some unwanted condition the less necessary it will be thought to maintain it. If a threat is successfully suppressed, people naturally wonder why we should any longer bother with it."

(James Piereson, "On the Paradox of Success." Real Clear Politics, Sep. 11, 2006)

· "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."

(C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Personification

A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.

· "Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there."

(proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos)

Pun

A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.

· "When it pours, it reigns."

(slogan of Michelin tires)

· "What food these morsels be!"

(slogan of Heinz pickles, 1938)

· "American Home has an edifice complex."

(slogan of American Home magazine)

· "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight"

(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night")

· "Look deep into our ryes."

(slogan of Wigler's Bakery)

· "Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted."

(Fred Allen)

· A vulture boards a plane, carrying two dead possums. The attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

Simile

A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech is 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. (form of metonymy)

· 9/11

· white-collarcriminals

Understatement

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

"I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain."

(Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)

Answer 3

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