Rhetorical Terms

Question 1

Inventio

Answer 1

Finding or inventing a subject to speak about

From Latin “find”

Question 2

Dispositio

Answer 2

Arrangement/order of points

Question 3

Elocutio

Answer 3

Manner of delivering speech

Question 4

Memoria

Answer 4

Memorising the speech

Question 5

Pronunciato

Answer 5

The performance of the speech

Question 6

Accumulation

Answer 6

Heaping of similar ideas or images expressed in various ways

Question 7

Anacolouthon

Answer 7

Beginning a sentence with one grammatical construction and finishing with another
From the Greek “not” + “following”
Eg If thou beest he; but O how fallen!

Question 8

Anadiplosis

Answer 8

Repeating a word at the end of one clause and the beginning of the next
Greek “doubling”/”folding up”
Eg fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate

Question 9

Anaphora

Answer 9

Repeating a word at the begininning of several clauses

Question 10

Antithesis

Answer 10

Presenting a contrast of ideas through balanced, opposing words and clauses

Question 11

Antanaclasis

Answer 11

Repetition of a word but employing a different sense

Eg ‘thou art all my art’

Question 12

Antiphrasis

Answer 12

Irony - ie a word or phrase is used to mean its opposite

Eg ‘Little John’

Question 13

Apostrophe

Answer 13

Breaking off from the narrative to address an absent person/thing/deity/concept
Greek “turning away”
Eg ‘Oh, Death!’

Question 14

Assonance

Answer 14

Repetition of vowel sounds

Question 15

Asyndeton

Answer 15

Omission of conjunctions

Question 16

Aposiopesis

Answer 16

Breaking off from speech suddenly, often due to strong emotion

Question 17

Bathos

Answer 17

Deliberate anticlimax, or lowering of tone

Question 18

Brevitas

Answer 18

Conciseness

Question 19

Chiasmus

Answer 19

ABBA
Latin “cross”
Aka antimetabole

Question 20

Catachresis

Answer 20

Misapplication of a word, either incorrect usage or unusual placement
Greek “abuse”
Eg the “inhabitants” of a graveyard / “I’m ravished”

Question 21

Ekphrasis

Answer 21

Set-piece, self-contained/departing description of a piece of art

Question 22

Eliipsis

Answer 22

Omission of a word or words which is strictly grammatically necessary

Question 23

Enargeia

Answer 23

A vivid description, bringing view of something before the audience

Question 24

Epanados

Answer 24

Repeating a word at the beginning + middle, or middle + end of a line

Question 25

Enjambement

Answer 25

Running over from line to the next

Question 26

Exordium

Answer 26

The introduction to a speech - Cicero said it should put the audience in the right frame of mind for the rest

Question 27

Epanalepsis

Answer 27

Repetition of a word or words with intervening words

Question 28

Epanorthosis

Answer 28

Retracting and replacing something that's just been said Aka correctio Eg 'Your eye, no... your hair'

Question 29

Epistrophe

Answer 29

Repeating a word at the end of multiple clauses

Question 30

Hendiadys

Answer 30

Expression of a single idea via noun-and-noun, instead of adjective-noun Eg 'nice and cool'

Question 31

Homoeoteleuton

Answer 31

Words in clise proximity with the same ending

Question 32

Hypallage

Answer 32

Transference of an adjective to a noun to which it doesnt belong Eg 'they went, dark, beneath the lonely night'

Question 33

Hyperbaton

Answer 33

Unsual word order

Question 34

Hyperbole

Answer 34

Exaggeration | Greek "throw above"

Question 35

Hysteron-proteron

Answer 35

Presentation of ideas in an illogical order A type of hyperbaton Eg 'they died and rushed into battle'

Question 36

Juxtaposition

Answer 36

Placing things next to each other

Question 37

Litotes

Answer 37

Emphatic understatement, eg double negative

Question 38

Meiosis

Answer 38

Understatement | Eg 'a scatch!'

Question 39

Metalepsis

Answer 39

Missing out logical steps | Eg 'I've got to catch the worm tomorrow'

Question 40

Metonymy

Answer 40

The name or attribute of something stands in for the thing itself Eg mars = war / pen = writing

Question 41

Onomatopeia

Answer 41

Sound of a word relates to its meaning

Question 42

Oxymoron

Answer 42

A compressed paradox - two contradictory ideas yoked together Greek "oksus" (sharp, clever) and "morus" (dull, follish)

Question 43

Praeteritio

Answer 43

I wont mention X... whoops I already did | Aka paralepsis / apophasis

Question 44

Peroration

Answer 44

Conclusion to a speech

Question 45

Pathetic fallacy

Answer 45

Attributing human emotions to inanimate things

Question 46

Pathos

Answer 46

Pity or sadness, empathy

Question 47

Periphrasis

Answer 47

Circumlocution

Question 48

Personification

Answer 48

Describing something non-human in a human way

Question 49

Parison

Answer 49

A sequence of lines or clauses eith similar syntactic structure

Question 50

Plenoasm

Answer 50

Deliberate verbosity | Eg dark, shadowy night shone darkly

Question 51

Polyptoton

Answer 51

Using the same word repeated, but in different forms | Eg 'to live a life, living here'

Question 52

Polysyndeton

Answer 52

Lots of conjunctions

Question 53

Prosopopoeia

Answer 53

Addressing an idea or a concept as a real person, or speaking as another thing/person/character

Question 54

Syllepsis

Answer 54

Using one word to apply to two | Eg i fall into bed and disarray

Question 55

Synechdoche

Answer 55

Using the part to represent the whole | Eg all hands on deck

Question 56

Tricolon

Answer 56

Triplet

Question 57

Variatio

Answer 57

Variation of construction

Question 58

Zeugma

Answer 58

Applying a verb or adjective to two nouns, with two different senses