| A | B |
|---|
| anaphora | repetition of a word, usually at the beginning of clauses or phrases |
| aposiopesis | an abrupt failure to complete a sentence for rhetorical effect |
| apostrophe | address of an absent person or an abstraction |
| assonance | close recurrence of similar sounds, usually used of vowel sounds |
| asyndeton | omission of conjunctions in a closely related series |
| ecphrasis | an apparent digression describing a place |
| hendiadys | use of two nouns connected by a conjunction with the meaning of one modified noun |
| hyperbole | exaggeration for effect |
| irony | use of words with a meaning contrary to the situation |
| metaphor | an implied comparison |
| onomatopeia | use of words whose sound suggests the sense |
| prolepsis | use of a word before it is appropriate in the context |
| simile | an expressed comparison introduced by a word such as qualis |
| synechdoche | use of the part of the whole to avoid common words or to focus attention on a particular part |
| transferred epithet | device in which the poet attributes some characteristic of a thing to another thing closely associated with it |
| allegory | a narrative in which abstract ideas figure as circumstances or persons, usually to enforce a moral truth |
| alliteration | repetition of the same consonant sound |
| chiasmus | arrangement of words in the pattern ABBA |
| ellipsis | omission of one or more words necessary to the sense |
| enjambement | the running over of a sentence from one verse or couplet into another so that closely related words fall in different lines |
| hysteron proteron | reversal of chronological order to put the more important idea first |
| litotes | an understatement for emphasis |
| metonymy | use of one noun in place of another closely related noun to avoid common words |
| oxymoron | the use of apparently contradictory words in the same phrase |
| personification | treatment of an inanimate object as human |
| pleonasm | use of unnecessary words |
| polysyndeton | use of unnecessary conjunctions |
| praeteritio | claiming to not mention or pass over something that one plans to say |
| prosopopoeia | the assumption of another persona for rhetorical or dramatic effect |
| synchesis | interlocking word order in the pattern ABAB |
| tmesis | separation of the parts of a compound word |
| tricolon crescens | a three-part increase of emphasis or enlargement of meaning |
| zeugma | use of a verb or adjective with two words, to only one of which it literally applies |
