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A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from straightforward language use or literal meaning to produce a rhetorical or intensified effect (emotionally, aesthetically, intellectually, etc.).^[1]^[2] In the distinction between literal and figurative language, figures of speech constitute the latter. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into schemes, which vary the ordinary sequence of words, and tropes, where words carry a meaning other than what they ordinarily signify.

An example of a scheme is a polysyndeton: the repetition of a conjunction before every element in a list, whereas the conjunction typically would appear only before the last element, as in "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"—emphasizing the danger and number of animals more than the prosaic wording with only the second "and". An example of a trope is the metaphor, describing one thing as something it clearly is not, as a way to illustrate by comparison, as in "All the world's a stage."

Four rhetorical operations

Classical rhetoricians classified figures of speech into four categories or quadripita ratio:^[3]

addition (adiectio), also called repetition/expansion/superabundance
omission (detractio), also called subtraction/abridgement/lack
transposition (transmutatio), also called transferring
permutation (immutatio), also called switching/interchange/substitution/transmutation

These categories are often still used. The earliest known text listing them, though not explicitly as a system, is the Rhetorica ad Herennium, of unknown authorship, where they are called πλεονασμός (pleonasmos—addition), ἔνδεια (endeia—omission), μετάθεσις (metathesis—transposition) and ἐναλλαγή (enallage—permutation).^[4] Quintillian then mentioned them in Institutio Oratoria.^[5] Philo of Alexandria also listed them as addition (πρόσθεσις—prosthesis), subtraction (ἀφαίρεσις—afairesis), transposition (μετάθεσις—metathesis), and transmutation (ἀλλοίωσις—alloiosis).^[6]

Examples

Figures of speech come in many varieties.^[7] The aim is to use the language imaginatively to accentuate the effect of what is being said. A few examples follow:

"Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran" is an example of alliteration, where the consonant r is used repeatedly. "Sister Suzy‘s sewing socks for soldiers" is a particular form of alliteration called sibilance, repeating an s sound. Both are commonly used in poetry.

"She would run up the stairs and then a new set of curtains" is a variety of zeugma called a syllepsis. Run up can refer either to a quick ascent or to manufacture. The effect is enhanced by the momentary suggestion, through a pun, that she might be climbing the curtains. The ellipsis or omission of the second use of the verb makes the reader think harder about what is being said.
"Painful pride" is an oxymoron, where two contradictory ideas are placed in the same sentence.
"I had butterflies in my stomach" is a metaphor, referring to a nervous feeling as if there were flying insects in one's stomach.

To say "it was like having some butterflies in my stomach" is a simile, because it uses the word like, which a metaphor does not.

To say "It was like having a butterfly farm in my stomach", "It felt like a butterfly farm in my stomach", or "I was so nervous that I had a butterfly farm in my stomach" could be a hyperbole, because it is exaggerated.

"That filthy place was really dirty" is an example of tautology, as there are the two words ('filthy' and 'dirty') having almost the same meaning and are repeated so as to make the text more emphatic.

Types

Scholars of classical Western rhetoric have divided figures of speech into two main categories: schemes and tropes. Schemes (from the Greek schēma, 'form or shape') are figures of speech that change the ordinary or expected pattern of words. For example, the phrase, "John, my best friend" uses the scheme known as apposition. Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men").

During the Renaissance, scholars meticulously enumerated and classified figures of speech. Henry Peacham, for example, in his The Garden of Eloquence (1577), enumerated 184 different figures of speech. Professor Robert DiYanni, in his book Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama and the Essay^[8] wrote: "Rhetoricians have catalogued more than 250 different figures of speech, expressions or ways of using words in a nonliteral sense."

For simplicity, this article divides the figures between schemes and tropes, but does not further sub-classify them (e.g., "Figures of Disorder"). Within each category, words are listed alphabetically. Most entries link to a page that provides greater detail and relevant examples, but a short definition is placed here for convenience. Some of those listed may be considered rhetorical devices, which are similar in many ways.

Schemes

Schemes are words or phrases whose syntax, sequence, or pattern occurs in a manner that varies from an ordinary usage.

Accumulatio: restating, through accumulation, already said arguments in a concise and forceful manner.
Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Example: "She sells sea shells by the sea shore".
Anadiplosis: repetition of a word at the end of a clause and then at the beginning of its succeeding clause.
Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
Anastrophe: changing the object, subject and verb order in a clause.
Anti-climax: an abrupt descent (either deliberate or unintended) on the part of a speaker or writer from the strong conclusion that appeared imminent.
Example: "People, pets, batteries, ... all are dead."
Antimetabole: a sentence consisting of the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in reverse order.
Antithesis: juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas in separate clauses.
Aphorismus: statement that calls into question if a word or phrase is properly used to characterize a subject.
Aposiopesis: breaking off or pausing speech for dramatic or emotional effect, often through the use of dashes or ellipses.
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds: "Smooth move!" or "Please leave!" or "That's the fact Jack!"
Asyndeton: omission of conjunctions between related clauses.
Chiasmus: two or more clauses related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point. subordinate class to antimetabole.
Climax: arrangement of words in an ascending order.
Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse.
Correlative verse: matching items in two sequences.
Diacope: repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words.
Elision: omission of one or more letters in speech, making it colloquial.
Enallage: wording ignoring grammatical rules or conventions.
Epanalepsis: ending sentences with their beginning.
Epiphrase: one or more sentences (typically of the author's understanding/expression of the issue) added to the end of a completed sentence
Epistrophe (also known as antistrophe): repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of successive clauses. The counterpart of anaphora.
Epizeuxis: repetition of a single word, with no other intervening words.
Hendiadys: use of two nouns to express an idea when it normally would consist of an adjective and a noun.
Hendiatris: use of three nouns to express one idea.
Homeoteleuton: words with the same ending.
Hypallage: a transferred epithet from a conventional choice of wording.^[9]
Hyperbaton: two ordinary associated words are detached.^[10]^[11] The term is also used more generally for any figure of speech that transposes natural word order.^[11]
Hypozeuxis: every clause having its own independent subject and predicate.
Hysteron proteron: the inversion of the usual temporal or causal order between two elements.
Isocolon: use of parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses.
Internal rhyme: using two or more rhyming words in the same sentence.
Litotes: an understatement achieved by negating the opposite statement, such as "not too bad" for "very good", or "she is not a beauty queen" for "she is ugly", yielding an ironical effect.
Onomatopoeia: word that imitates a real sound (e.g. tick-tock or boom).
Paradiastole: A rhetorical device using euphemistic or mild language to avoid offence or harsh reality.
Parallelism: the use of similar structures in two or more clauses.
Paraprosdokian: A sentence or phrase with an unexpected twist or surprise at the end.
Paroemion: alliteration in which nearly every word in a sentence or phrase begins with the same letter.
Polyptoton: repetition of words derived from the same root.
Polysyndeton: close repetition of conjunctions.
Sibilance: repetition of letter 's', it is a form of consonance.
Spoonerism: switching places of syllables within two words in a sentence yielding amusement.
Syncope: omission of parts of a word or phrase.
Symploce: simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning and the end of successive clauses.
Synchysis: words that are intentionally scattered to create perplexment.
Synecdoche: referring to a part by its whole or vice versa.
Synonymia: use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentence.
Tautology: redundancy due to superfluous qualification; saying the same thing twice.
Tmesis: insertions of content within a compound word.
Tricolon diminuens: combination of three elements, each decreasing in size.
Tricolon crescens: combination of three elements, each increasing in size.
Zeugma: the using of one verb for two or more actions.

Tropes

Tropes are words or phrases whose contextual meaning differs from the manner or sense in which they are ordinarily used.

Accismus: expressing the want of something by denying it.^[12]
Adynaton: an extreme form of hyperbole (exaggeration). It the opposite of understatement.
Allegory: a metaphoric narrative in which the literal elements indirectly reveal a parallel story of symbolic or abstract significance.^[13]^[14]^[15]
Allusion: covert reference to another work of literature or art.
Anacoenosis: posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker.
Analogy: a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Anapodoton: leaving a common known saying unfinished.
Antanaclasis: a form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses.^[16]
Anthimeria: transformation of a word of a certain word class to another word class: such as a noun for a verb and vice versa. ^[17]
Anthropomorphism: ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god (see zoomorphism).
Antiphrasis: a name or a phrase used ironically such that it is obvious of what the true intention is: see verbal irony.
Antonomasia: substitution of a proper name for a phrase or vice versa.
Aphorism: briefly phrased, easily memorable statement of a truth or opinion, an adage.
Aporia: faked or sincere puzzled questioning.
Apophasis: (Invoking) an idea by denying its (invocation), also known as occupatio or paralipsis.
Apostrophe: when an actor or speaker addresses an absent third party, often a personified abstraction or inanimate object.
Bathos: pompous speech with a ludicrously mundane worded anti-climax.
Catachresis: blatant misuse of words or phrases.
Cliché: overused phrase or theme.
Dysphemism: substitution of a harsher, more offensive, or more disagreeable term for another. Opposite of euphemism.
Ekphrasis: lively describing something you see, often a painting.
Epanorthosis: immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue.
Euphemism: substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another.
Hyperbole: use of exaggerated terms for emphasis.
Hypocatastasis: an implication or declaration of resemblance that does not directly name both terms.
Hypophora: answering one's own rhetorical question at length.
Illeism: the act of referring to oneself in the third person instead of first person.
Innuendo: having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not.
Irony: use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning.^[18]
Kenning: using a compound word neologism to form a metonym.
Litotes: emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite.
Malapropism: using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar.
Meiosis: use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something.
Merism: type of synecdoche referring to two or more contrasting parts to describe it's whole
Metalepsis: figurative speech is used in a new context.
Metaphor: an implied comparison between two things, attributing the properties of one thing to another that it does not literally possess.^[19]
Metonymy: a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept.
Nosism: the practice of using the pronoun we to refer to oneself when expressing a personal opinion.
Non sequitur: statement that bears no relationship to the context preceding.
Onomatopoeia: words that sound like their meaning.
Oxymoron: using two terms together, that normally contradict each other.
Parable: extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson.
Paradiastole: extenuating a vice in order to flatter or soothe.
Paradox: use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth.
Paraprosdokian: phrase in which the latter part causes a rethinking or reframing of the beginning.
Parody: humouristic imitation.
Paronomasia: pun in which similar-sounding words but words having a different meaning are used.
Pathetic fallacy: ascribing human conduct and feelings to nature.
Personification: attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.
Pleonasm: the use of more words than is necessary for clear expression.
Procatalepsis: refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument.
Proslepsis: extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic.
Proverb: succinct or pithy, often metaphorical, expression of wisdom commonly believed true.
Pun: play on words that has two meanings.
Rhetorical question: asking a question as a way of asserting something. Asking a question that already has the answer hidden in it, or asking a question not to get an answer, but to assert something (or to create a poetic effect).
Satire: humoristic criticism of society.
Sesquipedalianism: use of long and obscure words.
Simile: comparison between two things using like or as.
Snowclone: alteration of cliché or phrasal template.
Syllepsis: the use of a word in its figurative and literal sense at the same time or a single word used in relation to two other parts of a sentence although the word grammatically or logically applies to only one.
Synecdoche: form of metonymy, referring to a part by its whole, or a whole by its part.
Synesthesia: description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
Tautology: superfluous repetition of the same sense in different words Example: The children gathered in a round circle
Zeugma: use of a single verb to describe two or more actions.
Zoomorphism: applying animal characteristics to humans or gods.

References

Citations

^ Mar, Emanuel del (1842). "A Grammar of the English Language .. In a series of familiar lectures, etc". Archived from the original on 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
^ "figure of speech". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
^ Jansen, Jeroen (2008) Imitatio Archived 2015-07-14 at the Wayback Machine ISBN 978-90-8704-027-7 Summary Archived 2008-12-05 at the Wayback Machine translated to English by Kristine Steenbergh. Quote from the summary:
Using these formulas, a pupil could render the same subject or theme in a myriad of ways. For the mature author, this principle offered a set of tools to rework source texts into a new creation. In short, the quadripartita ratio offered the student or author a ready-made framework, whether for changing words or the transformation of entire texts. Since it concerned relatively mechanical procedures of adaptation that for the most part could be learned, the techniques concerned could be taught at school at a relatively early age, for example in the improvement of pupils' own writing.
^ Book IV, 21.29, pp.303–5
^ Institutio Oratoria, Vol. I, Book I, Chapter 5, paragraphs 6 and 38–41. And also in Book VI Chapter 3
^ Rhetorica ad Herennium
^ "The Forest of Rhetoric". Silva Rhetoricae. Brigham Young.
^ Robert DiYanni, Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama and the Essay, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-557112-9, p. 451
^ Bernard Marie Dupriez (1991). A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradius, A-Z. University of Toronto Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8020-6803-3. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2013.Dupriez, Bernard Marie (1991). A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A-Z. University of Toronto Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8020-6803-3. Archived from the original on 2014-01-07.
^ Kevin Wilson; Jennifer Wauson (2010). The AMA Handbook of Business Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Style, Grammar, Usage, Punctuation, Construction, and Formatting. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-8144-1589-4. Archived from the original on 2013-12-05.
^ ^a ^b Stephen Cushman; Clare Cavanagh; Jahan Ramazani; Paul Rouzer (26 August 2012). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: Fourth Edition. Princeton University Press. p. 647. ISBN 978-1-4008-4142-4. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013.
^ Shipley, Joseph T. (1943). "Trope". Dictionary of World Literature: Criticism, Forms, Technique. Philosophical Library. p. 595. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10.
^ Kennedy et al, 2006 p. 4-5
^ Quinn, 1999. p. 12
^ Baldick,2008. p. 7
^ Corbett and Connors, 1999. p.62
^ Corbett and Connors, 1999. p. 64-65
^ Corbett and Connors. 1999. p.69-70
^ Corbett and Connors, 1999. p.60

Sources

Baldrick, Chris. 2008. Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press. New York. ISBN 978-0-19-920827-2.
Corbett, Edward P. J. and Connors, Robert J. 1999. Style and Statement. Oxford University Press. New York, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-511543-0.
Kennedy, X.J. et al. 2006. The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms: Vocabulary for the Informed Reader. Pearson, Longman. New York. ISBN 0-321-33194-X.
Forsyth, Mark. 2014. The Elements of Eloquence. Berkley Publishing Group/Penguin Publishing. New York. ISBN 978-0-425-27618-1.
Quinn, Edward. 1999. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms. Checkmark Books. New York. ISBN 0-8160-4394-9.
"Silva Rhetorica: The Forest of Rhetoric". Brigham Young University.