| A | B |
|---|
| Alliteration | repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words |
| Anadiplosis | repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause |
| Anaphora | repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences |
| Anastrophe | inversion of the natural or usual word order |
| Antithesis | the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas |
| Apophasis | asserts or emphasizes something by seeming to pass over, ignore, or deny it |
| Apposition | placing, side by side, two co-ordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation of the first |
| Assonance | the repetition of similar vowel sounds in two or more adjacent words |
| Asyndeton | deliberate omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses |
| Chaismus | reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses |
| Climax | arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in order of increasing importance |
| Ellipsis | deliberate omission of a word or words, which are readily implied by the context |
| Epanalepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause |
| Epistrophe | repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive phrases or clauses |
| Euphemism | the substitution of less pungent words for harsh ones, with ironic effect |
| Expletive | a single word or phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to the expletive |
| Hyperbole | the use of exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect |
| Hypophora | raising questions, then answering them |
| Litotes | the use of deliberate understatement for emphasis or effect |
| Metaphor | implied comparison between two things of unlike nature, yet which have something in common |
| Metonymy | using a closely related object as a substitute for the object or idea in mind |
| Onomatopoeia | using words, that sound like what they mean |
| Oxymoron | a paradox reduced to two words |
| Paradox | a statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has some truth |
| Parallelism | similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses |
| Parenthesis | insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence |
| Personification | investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities |
| Polysyndeton | deliberate use of many conjunctions |
| Pun | word play |
| Rhetorical Question | asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely |
| Simile | an explicit comparison, usually using "like," "as," or "than" between two things of unlike nature yet that have something in common |
| Synecdoche | using a part to represent a whole |
