Figures of speech

Figures of speech

Figures of speech are also known as figures of rhetoric, figures of style, rhetorical figures and figurative language.

What are figures of speech?

A figure of speech is a word or phrase that means something more or something other than it seems to say— something different or opposite of a literal expression.

It is a deviation from the ordinary use of words in order to increase their effectiveness.

The purpose of using figures of speech is to add richness to writing that will have an effect on the reader. By using these comparisons, it allows the reader to have a greater understanding and ability to imagine the situations being described in the writing.

Basically, it is a figurative language that may consist of a single word or phrase.It may be a simile, a metaphor or personification to convey the meaning other than the literal meaning.

Types of figures of Speech

The figures of speech list is over a hundred but some commonly used types are given along with examples.

Common figures of speech with examples:

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.

2. METAPHOR

It is an informal or implied simile in which words like, as, so are omitted. For example, “He is like a lion (Simile) “and “He is a lion (metaphor)”. In the following examples, metaphors are underlined.

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. For example, in some phrases we use, the furious storm, the thirsty ground, and the pitiless cold. Some other examples are:

Little sorrows sit and weep. (Boccaccio)

The dish ran away with the spoon. (Blake)

4. METONYMY

Metonymy is meant for a change of name. It is a substitute of the thing names for the thing meant. Following examples will clarify the concept.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

From the cradle to the grave. = from childhood to death.

I have never read Milton. = the works of Milton.

5. APOSTROPHE

It is a direct address to some inanimate thing or some abstract idea as if it were living person or some absent person as if it were present. 

Example, “Boy’s mother loved him very much.”

6. HYPERBOLE

Hyperbole is a statement made emphatic by overstatement. 

For example, “Virtues as the sands of the shore.”

7. SYNECDOCHE

Synecdoche is the understanding of one thing by means of another. Here, a part is used to designate the whole or the whole to designate a part. 

For example, “I have the Viceroy, love the man.”, and “All hands (crew) at work.”

8. TRANSFERRED EPITHETS

In transferred epithets, the qualifying objective is transferred from a person to a thing as in phrases. 

For example, “sleepless night”, “sunburn mirth”, and “melodious plain”.

9. EUPHEMISM

The euphemism rhetoric used to change words or expressions about a concept that might offend other people is used to make words that might be rude, harsh, or disagreeable more polite.

 “porcelain throne” for toilet

 “economically struggling” for poor people

“to sleep” is used for killing someone 

10. IRONY 

In this mode of speech, the real meanings of the words used are different from the intended meanings. 

For example, the child of cobbler has no shoe.

11. PUN

This consists of a play on the various meanings of a word. Its effect is often ludicrous. 

For example,

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

In Litotes rhetoric, which is used to describe a positive expression, claim, or statement, the same thing is expressed by using the sentence that should actually be used in a positive way, in a negative way. Let’s take a look at the examples to understand this better:

The sports car Alice just bought wasn’t cheap. (Normally, we should have written this sentence as “The sports car Alice bought was quite expensive”, but we preferred to use Litotes rhetoric by putting this sentence in a negative way.)

A litotes by definition is a form of understatement for emphasis through the use of a double negative. Instead of saying, for instance, that the weather is good today, one would employ a litotes by saying that the weather isn't bad today.

It is a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. The paradox is a rhetorical device used to attract attention, to secure emphasis.

Example-

He loves being in the public eye but also deeply values and protects his privacy.

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!

18. CLIMAX

It is an arrangement of a series of ideas in the order of increasing importance. 

For example, “What a piece of work man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties! In action, how like an angel!”

19. ANTICLIMAX OR BATHOS

This is the opposite to climax and signifies a ludicrous descent from the higher to the lower.

A man so various, that he seemed to be. Not one, but all mankind’s epitome; who in the course of one revolving moon; was lawyer, statesman, fiddler, and buffoon.

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 as under 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. TAUTOLOGY OR PLEONASM

Tautology is meant for repeating the same fact or idea in different words. For example, “It is the privilege and birthright of every man to express his ideas without any fear.”

24. UNDERSTATEMENT

Understatement art, which is used to express incomplete sentences, is the deliberate mistake of some writers and artists. In fact, the main purpose of this art of speech, which cannot be called a mistake, is to show a certain situation as less important than it is.

He is not very successful in his classes. (Actually, he’s quite unsuccessful in his classes, but the author tries to make it clear that it doesn’t matter.)

The wind blew stronger than usual. (Actually, there was a storm serious enough to rip up the power poles, but the author ignored it.)

25. METONYMY

When an object or idea is in close association with another object or other idea and replaces the other idea or object, it is called metonymy rhetoric. 

So, metonymy rhetoric, means a name change but expresses more than that, is frequently used by many poets, and we frequently encounter it in our daily life.

It is a metonym for our use of the word Hollywood to refer to the film industry.

Academics is a word that includes all schools, colleges, universities, classes, courses, and everything related to education. This is an important example of metonymy that we may encounter in daily life.

26. SYNECDOCHE

Synecdoche, which is rhetoric used to indicate a part of anything on a subject, is actually rhetoric that can be used for the opposite. 

Although this rhetoric, which has passed from Greek to English as a noun origin, can be explained as a simultaneous meaning, it is not such simple rhetoric. In fact, Synecdoche rhetoric is rhetoric by writers or poets that deals with a particular aspect of that word to express any word or an idea in a different way.

Although the White House is a word that refers to the president of the United States, it got this name because it is a white house.

Pentagon is a word denoting America’s military leaders, and the synecdoche rhetoric is masterfully used here.

27. PERIPHRASE

It is a use of longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter form of expression. The definition of periphrase is very similar to that of circumlocution, which also means talking around something by adding more words.

It is a single word that can express a great multitude of complexity by itself.

The viewless couriers of the air. (winds)

His prominent feature (his nose) was like an eagle’s beak.

He resembled the animals that browses on thistles. (an ass)

28. ANTITHESIS

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

Example: As Abraham Lincoln said, "Folks who have no vices have very few virtues."

29. IDENTICAL STATEMENT

This figure of speech is an indirect mode of describing the fact that is not appearing on the surface.

Examples

Fact is fact.

I am what I am.

Do whatever you want to do.

Sensation is sensation.

30. Pun

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

Example: Joellien looked up from her breakfast and said, "A boiled egg every morning is hard to beat."

31. PARADOX

A paradox is a figure of speech in which a statement appears to contradict itself. This type of statement can be described as paradoxical. A compressed paradox comprised of just a few words is called an oxymoron. 

An oxymoron is a self-contradicting word or group of words (as in Shakespeare's line from Romeo and Juliet, "Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!"). A paradox is a statement or argument that seems to be contradictory or to go against common sense, but that is yet perhaps still true—for example, "less is more."

Paradox examples:

Save money by spending it.

If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing.

This is the beginning of the end.

Deep down, you're really shallow.

I'm a compulsive liar.

32. Asyndeton

Asyndeton is a literary device that excludes conjunctions (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet) to add emphasis. 

It is one of several rhetorical devices that omit conjunctions. The definition of asyndeton is simple enough: It is a sentence containing a series of words or clauses in close succession, linked without the use of conjunctions. 

 

For example:

1. A dime, another ball, is worthless.( Ball Poem)

2. Julius Caesar used asyndeton when he famously wrote, “Veni, Vidi, Vici” or “I came, I saw, I conquered.”