Word Terms
- Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence.
- Anacoluthon: lack of grammatical sequence; a change in the grammatical construction within the same sentence.
- Anadiplosis: ("doubling back") the rhetorical repetition of one or several words; specifically, repetition of a word that ends one clause at the beginning of the next.
- Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines.
- Anastrophe: transposition of normal word order; most often found in Latin in the case of prepositions and the words they control. Anastrophe is a form of hyperbaton.
- Antistrophe: repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
- Antithesis: opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.
- Aporia: expression of doubt (often feigned) by which a speaker appears uncertain as to what he should think, say, or do.
- Aposiopesis: a form of ellipse by which a speaker comes to an abrupt halt, seemingly overcome by passion (fear, excitement, etc.) or modesty.
- Apostrophe: a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present.
- Archaism: use of an older or obsolete form.
- Assonance: repetition of the same sound in words close to each other.
- Asyndeton: lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.
- Brachylogy: a general term for abbreviated or condensed expression, of which asyndeton and zeugma are types. Ellipse is often used synonymously. The suppressed word or phrase can usually be supplied easily from the surrounding context.
- Cacophony: harsh joining of sounds.
- Catachresis: a harsh metaphor involving the use of a word beyond its strict sphere.
- Chiasmus: two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels (a-b-a-b) but in inverted order (a-b-b-a); from shape of the Greek letter chi (X).
- Climax: arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power. Often the last emphatic word in one phrase or clause is repeated as the first emphatic word of the next.
- Euphemism: substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.
- Hendiadys: use of two words connected by a conjunction, instead of subordinating one to the other, to express a single complex idea.
- Hypallage: ("exchanging") transferred epithet; grammatical agreement of a word with another word which it does not logically qualify. More common in poetry.
- Hyperbaton: separation of words which belong together, often to emphasize the first of the separated words or to create a certain image.
- Hyperbole: exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.
- Hysteron Proteron ("later-earlier"): inversion of the natural sequence of events, often meant to stress the event which, though later in time, is considered the more important.
- Irony: expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean another.
- Litotes: understatement, for intensification, by denying the contrary of the thing being affirmed. (Sometimes used synonymously with meiosis.)
- Metaphor: implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.
- Metonymy: substitution of one word for another which it suggests.
- Onomatopoeia: use of words to imitate natural sounds; accommodation of sound to sense.
- Oxymoron: apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another.
- Paradox: an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.
- Paraprosdokian: surprise or unexpected ending of a phrase or series.
- Paronomasia: use of similar sounding words; often etymological word-play.
- Personification: attribution of personality to an impersonal thing.
- Pleonasm: use of superfluous or redundant words, often enriching the thought.
- Polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses.
- Praeteritio (=paraleipsis): pretended omission for rhetorical effect.
- Prolepsis: the anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause before its antecedent.
- Simile: an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'.
- Syllepsis: use of a word with two others, with each of which it is understood differently.
- Synchysis: interlocked word order.
- Synecdoche: understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A form of metonymy.)
- Synesis (=constructio ad sensum): the agreement of words according to logic, and not by the grammatical form; a kind of anacoluthon.
- Tautology: repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence.
- Zeugma: two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them.