| A | B |
|---|
| Allegory | a narrative in which abstract ideas (such as Love, Rumor, Knowledge) figure as circumstances or persons usually to enforce a moral truth. |
| Alliteration | repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence. |
| Anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines |
| 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. |
| Asyndeton | of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words |
| 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). |
| Ecphrasis | the literary description of a visual work of art |
| Ellipsis | omission of one or more words necessary to the sense. |
| Enjambment | the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of verse into the next line without a pause |
| Hendiadys | use of two words connected by a conjunction, instead of subordinating one to the other, to express a single complex idea. |
| Hyperbole | exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect. |
| Hysteron Proteron | 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. |
| 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 |
| Personification | attribution of personality to an impersonal thing. |
| Pleonasm | use of superfluous or redundant words, often enriching the thought |
| Polyptoton | repetition of a word in a different case or inflection in the same sentence |
| Polysyndeton | the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses |
| Praeteritio | 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 |
| Prosopopoeia | an absent or imaginary person is represented as speaking |
| Simile | an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as' |
| Synchysis | Synchysis: interlocked word order (ABAB) |
| Synecdoche | understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part |
| Tmesis | The separation of the parts of a compound word by the intervention of one or more words |
| Transferred Epithet | grammatical agreement of a word with another word which it does not logically qualify. |
| Tricolon Crescens | a combination of three elements increasing in size. |
| Zeugma | two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them |
