Figures of Speech quality.

It uses words such as ‘like’ or

- A figure of speech is an ‘as’ to make the comparison.
expression used to make a Examples:
greater effect on your reader or - My brother and I fight like cats
listener. It includes making and dogs all the time.
comparisons, contrasts, - Bob is as cunning as a fox.
associations, exaggerations and
constructions. It also gives a 2. Metaphor - is used to make a
much clearer picture of what you comparison, but in a way different from
are trying to convey. a simile. It makes the comparison as if it
was literally true. In other words, it can
15 Figures of Speech be said that a metaphor is an implied
1. Simile comparison.
2. Metaphor Examples:
3. Personification - My mom has a heart of gold.
4. Apostrophe - Natty was a cheetah in the race.
5. Alliteration
6. Assonance 3. Personification - is used to attribute
7. Hyperbole human characteristics to something that
8. Euphemism is not human. It can also be used to
9. Antithesis personify an abstract quality.
10. Oxymoron Examples:
11. Epigram - The sun kissed me while I was
12. Irony clicking a picture.
13. Pun - I felt like the food kept calling me.
14. Metonymy
15. Synecdoche 4. Apostrophe - is used to address
someone who is absent or already
1. Simile - A simile is a figure of speech dead. It can also be used to address an
that is mainly used to compare two or abstract quality or idea, and even a
more things that possess a similar non-living object.

1
Examples: - "Aunt Agnes! Ack! Another
- "O, pardon me, thou bleeding accounting error!"
piece of earth!" Mark Antony - I like to decline an offer of wine to
addresses Caesar’s corpse as if define my style.
it could hear his plea for
forgiveness. 7. Hyperbole - is a rhetorical device that
- "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I is mainly used to make something look
wonder what you are." The and sound a lot better than it actually is.
speaker addresses the star In other words, it can be said to be a
directly, marveling at its brilliance. form of exaggeration.
Examples:
5. Alliteration - is a literary device that - When she did the flips at the
uses similar phonetic sounds in dance, she landed as light as a
continuity to make an effect. This device feather.
is usually used to decorate the words - My brother said that he had a
with a musical, lyrical or emotional million things to do when he was
effect. actually sitting idly.
Examples:
- She sells sea shells on the sea 8. Euphemism - The term ‘euphemism’
shore. refers to those words or a phrase that
- Betty bought a bit of butter but can be used to convey something
the butter was very bitter so Betty unpleasant, sad or considered taboo. It
bought some better butter to is the art of communicating something in
make the bitter butter better. a less annoying and much lighter tone
or in an indirect manner.
6. Assonance - is characterized by the Examples:
use of words having similar vowel - His great-grandfather passed
sounds consecutively. It can be said to away last week.
be a variation of alliteration. - Devan’s grandmother seems to
Examples: be enjoying her golden years
happily and peacefully.

2
9. Antithesis - states strongly - I feel these patterns are pretty
contrasting ideas placed in juxtaposition. ugly and not up to the mark.
They contain compound sentences with - The process of giving birth is
the two independent clauses separated painfully beautiful.
by a comma or a semicolon, in most
cases. However, there are also 11. Epigram - is a short, interesting and
instances where the antithesis is a insightful idea or thought about a
compound sentence with a conjunction. specific subject expressed in a witty,
An antithesis is mainly used to portray satirical and funny manner.
the stark difference between the two Examples:
opposing ideas. - There is only one thing in the
Examples: world worse than being talked
- Speech is silver, but silence is about, and that is not being
gold. talked about. – Oscar Wilde
- Keep your friends close; keep - It is better to light a candle than
your enemies closer. curse the darkness. – Eleanor
Roosevelt
10. Oxymoron - is a rhetorical device
that uses two opposite or contradictory 12. Irony - used to express an intended
terms one after the other in order to meaning by using language that
project an effect. According to the conveys the opposite meaning when
Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, oxymoron taken literally. The Oxford Learner’s
is defined as “a phrase that combines Dictionary defines the term ‘irony’ as
two words that seem to be the opposite “the use of words that say the opposite
of each other.” The Cambridge of what you really mean, often as a joke
Dictionary defines an oxymoron as “two and with a tone of voice that shows
words or phrases used together that this”.
have, or seem to have, opposite Examples:
meanings.” - Ironic situation: The name of
Examples: India's biggest dog is "Tiny".

3
 - “I’m dying of thirst!” When in fact, 14. Metonymy - is formed by the use of
the speaker is just asking for a term (the name of an object or an
water. idea) to substitute another term that is
closely related to the thing or idea.
13. Pun - includes a play of words that According to the Oxford Learner’s
have more than one meaning or those Dictionary, the term ‘metonymy’ is
that sound alike. Among the figures of defined as “the act of referring to
speech, pun can be said to be the most something by the name of something
intriguing and amusing. All that one else that is closely connected with it”,
requires is a creative intellect and some and according to the Collins Dictionary,
wit to create humorous puns. it is defined as “the substitution of a
Examples: word referring to an attribute for the
- The following example from the thing that is meant”.
movie, ‘Winnie the Pooh’ plays Examples:
with the words knot and not. - “Do you have any idea what his
Rabbit : Good grief! Tie them mother tongue is?”
together, Piglet! Can you tie a The term ‘mother tongue’ refers
knot? to the language spoken by the
Piglet : I cannot. individual referred to as ‘his’.
Rabbit : Ah, so you CAN knot. - “That baby has all my heart.” The
Piglet : No. I cannot knot. word ‘heart’ is a substitute for
- One such example of the use of love.
pun in the series, ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’
is found in the scene when 15. Synecdoche - is a rhetorical device
Chandler is speaking to Joey which makes use of a term that refers to
about settling down. a part of something to substitute for the
Chandler: “It’s time to settle whole thing. According to the Oxford
down. Make a choice. Pick a Learner’s Dictionary, the term
lane.” ‘synecdoche’ is defined as “a word or
Joey: “Who’s Elaine?” phrase in which a part of something is
used to represent a whole, or a whole is

4
used to represent a part of something”, - Learn how to construct a
and according to the Oxford Dictionary sentence using these figures of
of Literary Terms, ‘synecdoche’ is speech.
defined as “a figure of speech by which - Read the following story:
a more comprehensive term is used for - My Brother’s Peculiar
a less comprehensive or vice versa, as Chicken by Alejandro R.
whole for part or part for whole”. Rocess
Examples: - The Witch by Edilberto K.
- “I know the voices dying with a Tiempo
dying fall, beneath the music from - In Unity by Wilfrido Ma.
a farther room” (‘The Love Song Guerrero
of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by T. S.
Eliot). Here, the word ‘voices’
refers to people. Voice is just one
of the elements that is a
characteristic of being a human.
- “Their eyes met as she sat in
front of him paler than anyone in
the huge ocean of faces before
them.” (‘The lady or The Tiger’ by
Frank R Stockton) ‘Faces’ here is
a term used to refer to a lot of
people and is an example of
synecdoche. This is because
‘faces’ just seem to be a part of
the body but used here to refer to
the whole idea.

Addition: