Figure of Speech

A figure of speech, which is sometimes referred to as a rhetoric, or also as locution, is a word or phrase that originates from straightforward, literal words in a language. Figures of speech are often utilized and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use. Note that all theories of meaning necessarily have a concept of "literal language" (see literal and figurative language). Under theories that do not, figure of speech is not an entirely coherent concept.

Examples
As an example of the figurative use of a word, consider the sentence, I am going to crown you. It may mean:


 * It's raining cats and dogs when it's raining really hard.
 * I'm going to give you a piece of my mind to tell the person what you really think.
 * Break a leg which means good luck.
 * I am going to put a second checker piece on top of your checker piece to signify that it has become a king (as in the game of checkers).
 * Butterflies in your stomach in the case that your nervous about something

Scholars of classical Western rhetoric have divided figures of speech into two main categories: schemes and tropes. Schemes (from the Greek schēma, form or shape) are figures of speech in which there is a deviation from the ordinary or expected pattern of words. For example, the phrase, "John, my best friend" uses the scheme known as apposition. Tropes (from the Greek tropein, to turn) involve changing or modifying the general meaning of a term. An example of a trope is the use of irony, which is the use of words in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men").

During the Renaissance, a time when scholars in every discipline had a passion for classifying all things, writers expended a great deal of energy in devising all manner of classes and sub-classes of figures of speech. Henry Peacham, for example, in his The Garden of Eloquence (1577) enumerated 184 different figures of speech.

For the sake of simplicity, this article divides the figures between schemes and tropes, but does not attempt further sub-classification (e.g., "Figures of Disorder"). Within each category, words are listed alphabetically. Each figure links to a page that provides greater detail and relevant examples, but a short definition is placed here for convenience. Some of those listed may be considered rhetorical devices, which are similar in many ways.


 * allegory: An extended metaphor in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject.
 * allusion: An indirect reference to another work of literature or art.
 * anacoenosis: Posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker.
 * antanaclasis: A form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses.
 * anthimeria: The substitution of one part of speech for another, often turning a noun into a verb.
 * anthropomorphism: Ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god (see zoomorphism).
 * antiphrasis: A word or words used contradictory to their usual meaning, often with irony
 * antonomasia: The substitution of a phrase for a proper name or vice versa
 * aphorism: A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion, an adage
 * apophasis: Invoking an idea by denying its invocation
 * aporia: Deliberating with oneself, often with the use of rhetorical questions
 * apostrophe: Addressing a thing, an abstraction or a person not present
 * archaism: Use of an obsolete, archaic, word(a word used in olden language, e.g. Shakespeare's language)
 * auxesis: A form of hyperbole, in which a more important sounding word is used in place of a more descriptive term
 * catachresis: A mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)
 * circumlocution: "Talking around" a topic by substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or periphrasis
 * commiseration: Evoking pity in the audience.
 * correctio: Linguistic device used for correcting one's mistakes, a form of which is epanorthosis.
 * denominatio: Another word for metonymy
 * double negative: grammar construction that can be used as an expression and it is the repetition of negative words
 * dysphemism: Substitution of a harsher, more offensive, or more disagreeable term for another. Opposite of euphemism.
 * epanorthosis: Immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue.
 * enumeratio: A form of amplification in which a subject is divided, detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly.
 * epanados: Repetition in a sentence with a reversal of words. Example: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
 * erotema: Synonym for rhetorical question
 * euphemism: Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another
 * hermeneia: Repetition for the purpose of interpreting what has already been said
 * hyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis
 * hypophora: Answering one's own rhetorical question at length
 * hysteron proteron: Reversal of anticipated order of events
 * innuendo: Having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not
 * invocation: An apostrophe to a god or muse
 * irony: Use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning
 * jasper: a figure of speech related to feelings by using one word
 * kataphora: the repetition of a cohesive device at the end
 * litotes: Emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite
 * malapropism: Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar
 * meiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something
 * metalepsis: Referring to something through reference to another thing to which it is remotely related
 * metaphor: A comparison between two things
 * metonymy: Substitution of a word to suggest what is really meant
 * neologism: The use of a word or term that has recently been created, or has been in use for a short time. Opposite of archaism.
 * onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning
 * oxymoron: Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other
 * parable: An extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson
 * paradox: Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth
 * paradiastole: Extenuating a vice in order to flatter or soothe
 * parallel irony: An ironic juxtaposition of sentences or situations (informal)
 * paralipsis: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it over
 * paronomasia: A form of pun, in which words similar in sound but with different meanings are used
 * pathetic fallacy: Using a word that refers to a human action on something non-human
 * periphrasis: Using several words instead of few
 * personification/prosopopoeia/anthropomorphism: Attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena
 * praeteritio: Another word for paralipsis
 * procatalepsis: Refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument
 * prolepsis: Another word for procatalepsis
 * proslepsis: An extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic
 * proverb:A succinct or pithy expression of what is commonly observed and believed to be true.
 * repetition: The repeated usage of word(s)/group of words in the same sentence to create a poetic/rhythmic effect.
 * rhetorical question: Asking a question as a way of asserting something. Or asking a question not for the sake of getting an answer but for asserting something (or as in a poem for creating a poetic effect).
 * satire: The use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. A literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. A literary genre comprising such compositions.
 * simile: A comparison between two things using like or as
 * superlative: Saying something the best of something i.e. the ugliest, the most precious etc
 * syllepsis: A form of pun, in which a single word is used to modify two other words, with which it normally would have differing meanings
 * syncatabasis ("condescension, accommodation"): adaptation of style to the level of the audience
 * synecdoche: A form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the whole
 * synesthesia: The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
 * tautology: Needless repetition of the same sense in different words Example: The children gathered in a round circle.
 * transferred epithet: The placing of an adjective with what appears to be the incorrect noun
 * truism: a self-evident statement
 * tricolon diminuens: A combination of three elements, each decreasing in size
 * tricolon crescens: A combination of three elements, each increasing in size
 * zeugma: a figure of speech related to syllepsis, but different in that the word used as a modifier is not compatible with one of the two words it modifies
 * zoomorphism: applying animal characteristics to humans or gods