THE COMMON FIGURES OF SPEECH
● Simile
- directly comparing two unlike things, often introduced with word like or as
examples:
1. The night sky was as dark as coal.
2. Her smile was as bright as the sun.
3. He fought like a lion in the battle.
● Metaphor
- comparison of two ideas that have similar characteristics without the use of like or as
examples:
1. The lord is my shepherd.
2. The classroom was a zoo.
3. Life is a rollercoaster.
● Personification
- human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object
examples:
1. The sun dances gracefully.
2. The sun smiled down on us.
3. The story jumped off the page.
4. The light danced on the surface of the water.
● Allusion
- figure of speech that quickly stimulates different ideas and associations using only a
couple of words, thus making an indirect reference
examples:
1. Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel.
2. Her smell of donuts is like kryptonite to me.
3. She showed up looking like Venus.
● Anaphora
- is a stylistic device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of
neighbouring clauses to give them emphasis
examples:
1. Go big or go home.
2. Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.
3. Get busy living or get busy dying.
● Antanaclasis
- a word is repeated and whose meaning changes in the second instance
examples:
1. We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
, 2. I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man.
● Anticlimax
- statements gradually descend in order of important
examples:
1. When the two characters are on top of a ferris wheel gazing over their hometown, they don't kiss
and, instead, go home and never confess their love to each other.
● Antiphrasis
- a word of phrase is used to mean to opposite of its normal meaning to create ironic
humorous effect
examples:
1. Take your time, we've got all day.
2. Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly.
● Antithesis
- refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas
examples:
1. Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.
2. Keep your mouth closed and your eyes open.
3. Keep your friend close; keep your enemies closer.
● Assonance
- is a figure of speech that refers to the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal
rhyming within phrases or sentences
examples:
1. Clap your hands, and stamp your feet.
2. Tain in certain, curtain, and captain.
● Apostrophe
- a figure of speech in which a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an
imaginary person or abstract quality or idea
examples:
1. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.
2. O Death, where is thy sting?
● Chiasmus
- a figure of speech in which words, grammatical construction, or concepts are repeated
in reverse order, in the same or modified form
examples:
1. Love as though you will sometimes hate, hate as though you will sometimes love.
2. She has all my love; my heart is hers.
3. We walked tiredly along the path, along the road we tiredly wandered.
● Simile
- directly comparing two unlike things, often introduced with word like or as
examples:
1. The night sky was as dark as coal.
2. Her smile was as bright as the sun.
3. He fought like a lion in the battle.
● Metaphor
- comparison of two ideas that have similar characteristics without the use of like or as
examples:
1. The lord is my shepherd.
2. The classroom was a zoo.
3. Life is a rollercoaster.
● Personification
- human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object
examples:
1. The sun dances gracefully.
2. The sun smiled down on us.
3. The story jumped off the page.
4. The light danced on the surface of the water.
● Allusion
- figure of speech that quickly stimulates different ideas and associations using only a
couple of words, thus making an indirect reference
examples:
1. Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel.
2. Her smell of donuts is like kryptonite to me.
3. She showed up looking like Venus.
● Anaphora
- is a stylistic device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of
neighbouring clauses to give them emphasis
examples:
1. Go big or go home.
2. Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.
3. Get busy living or get busy dying.
● Antanaclasis
- a word is repeated and whose meaning changes in the second instance
examples:
1. We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
, 2. I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man.
● Anticlimax
- statements gradually descend in order of important
examples:
1. When the two characters are on top of a ferris wheel gazing over their hometown, they don't kiss
and, instead, go home and never confess their love to each other.
● Antiphrasis
- a word of phrase is used to mean to opposite of its normal meaning to create ironic
humorous effect
examples:
1. Take your time, we've got all day.
2. Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly.
● Antithesis
- refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas
examples:
1. Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.
2. Keep your mouth closed and your eyes open.
3. Keep your friend close; keep your enemies closer.
● Assonance
- is a figure of speech that refers to the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal
rhyming within phrases or sentences
examples:
1. Clap your hands, and stamp your feet.
2. Tain in certain, curtain, and captain.
● Apostrophe
- a figure of speech in which a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an
imaginary person or abstract quality or idea
examples:
1. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.
2. O Death, where is thy sting?
● Chiasmus
- a figure of speech in which words, grammatical construction, or concepts are repeated
in reverse order, in the same or modified form
examples:
1. Love as though you will sometimes hate, hate as though you will sometimes love.
2. She has all my love; my heart is hers.
3. We walked tiredly along the path, along the road we tiredly wandered.
