All figure of speech synonyms

noun figure of speech

• allegory — An allegory is a story, poem, or painting in which the characters and events are symbols of something else. Allegories are often moral, religious, or political.
• allusion — An allusion is an indirect reference to someone or something.
• analogy — If you make or draw an analogy between two things, you show that they are similar in some way.
• anticlimax — You can describe something as an anticlimax if it disappoints you because it happens after something that was very exciting, or because it is not as exciting as you expected.
• antithesis — The antithesis of something is its exact opposite.
• bathos — In literary criticism, bathos is a sudden change in speech or writing from a serious or important subject to a ridiculous or very ordinary one.
• comparison — When you make a comparison, you consider two or more things and discover the differences between them.
• conceit — Conceit is very great pride in your abilities or achievements that other people feel is too great.
• device — A device is an object that has been invented for a particular purpose, for example for recording or measuring something.
• flourish — to be in a vigorous state; thrive: a period in which art flourished.
• flower — the blossom of a plant.
• hyperbole — obvious and intentional exaggeration.
• image — a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible.
• imagery — the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively: the dim imagery of a dream.
• irony — the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.
• metaphor — a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”. Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def 1).
• ornament — an accessory, article, or detail used to beautify the appearance of something to which it is added or of which it is a part: architectural ornaments.
• parable — a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.
• paradox — a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
• parallel — parallel processing
• personification — the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.
• rhetoric — (in writing or speech) the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.
• sarcasm — harsh or bitter derision or irony.
• satire — the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
• simile — a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose.”. Compare metaphor.
• analogue — If one thing is an analogue of another, it is similar in some way.
• understatement — the act or an instance of understating, or representing in a weak or restrained way that is not borne out by the facts: The journalist wrote that the earthquake had caused some damage. This turned out to be a massive understatement of the devastation.
• adumbration — to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.
• alliteration — Alliteration is the use in speech or writing of several words close together which all begin with the same letter or sound.
• anaphora — the use of a word such as a pronoun that has the same reference as a word previously used in the same discourse. In the sentence John wrote the essay in the library but Peter did it at home, both did and it are examples of anaphora
• antistrophe — the second of two movements made by a chorus during the performance of a choral ode
• aposiopesis — the device of suddenly breaking off in the middle of a sentence as if unwilling to continue
• apostrophe — An apostrophe is the mark ' when it is written to indicate that one or more letters have been left out of a word, as in 'isn't' and 'we'll'. It is also added to nouns to form possessives, as in 'Mike's car'.
• asyndeton — the omission of a conjunction between the parts of a sentence
• echoism — onomatopoeia.
• litotes — understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”.
• malapropism — an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.
• metonymy — a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “the bottle” for “strong drink,” or “count heads (or noses)” for “count people.”.
• onomatopoeia — the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.
• oxymoron — a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”.
• synecdoche — a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.
• trope — Rhetoric. any literary or rhetorical device, as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony, that consists in the use of words in other than their literal sense. an instance of this. Compare figure of speech.
• tropology — the use of figurative language in speech or writing.
• turn of phrase — expression, wording