Figurative Language Flashcards
Synesthesia
Describing something with a sense not usually associated with it (warm colors, smooth sounds, silent sun, cold personality, tasted green)
Consonance
A repeated consonant sound anywhere in multiple words
Alliteration
A repeated sound at the beginning of multiple words
Non-Sequitur
A statement does not logically follow (If an organism is a mammal, then it has hair and produces milk. Coconuts have hair and produce milk. Therefore, coconuts are mammals.)
Polysyndeton
Series of words connected by the over-use of the same conjunction (Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor…)
Asyndeton
Deliberate underuse of a conjunction (I came, I saw, I conquered)
Oxymoron
Figure of speech combining two opposite qualities to create a new meaning (icy hot, jumbo shrimp, virtual reality, original copy, feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health)
Antithesis
Looking at same thing or event from different perspectives “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” “don’t look at the glass half empty, look at it half full” “a penny saved is a penny earned”
Paradox
Opposite things that superficially seem impossible or untrue “A person who trusts cannot be trusted” “deep down, you’re really shallow” “you have to be cruel to be kind”
Juxtaposition
Put two different ideas next to each other and compare “trump v clinton and trump v biden”
Internal Rhyme
Rhyme occurring in the middle of a line of poetry. “Jack and JILL went up a HILL”
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds without repetition of consonant sounds
Slant Rhyme
Consonance or assonance but not both (ways and grace) (found and wound)
Zeugma (zoog-muh)
Word when two definitions are used at the same time (she broke his car and his heart)
Idioms
A widely used saying with a figurative meaning not parsable by looking at the individual words (cat got your tongue?)
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which part of something is used to signify the whole because it is physically a part of the thing it is representing or vice versa (offer your hand in marriage, hungry mouths to feed–the hand is a synecdoche of person, the mouth is a synecdoche of person,)
Metonymy
Figure of speech in which the use of a name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated; using something that symbolically represents something that describes it (the pen is mightier than the sword: pen represents literature, sword represents war)
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally (I walked a million miles to get here)
Litotes (lai-tuh-tees)
Understatement in which a negative expresses the opposite meaning (you’re not wrong, the soup was not too hot, you’re not that ugly)
Verbal Irony
speaking contradictory to what they really mean; sarcasm
Cosmic Irony
The idea that fate, destiny, or a god plays with human hopes and expectations (Oedipus Rex–Laius and Oedipus tried to escape their fates but caused it)
Situational Irony
The opposite of what you would expect happens
Onomatopoeia
A word representing a sound (there was a loud THUD at the door)
Apostrophe
Refers to a speech or address to a person who is not present or to an object (Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.)