“I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little

tumor on the brain.”

Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger

understatement

litotes

"Our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider road, mental illness with a

pill, poverty with a law, slums with a bulldozer, urban conflict with a gas, racism with a goodwill

gesture.“

~ Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness

a set of similarly structured words phrases or clauses

parallelism

“The town’s gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear

her. Abigail brings the other girls into court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea

for Israel.” ~ Arthur Miller

a reference to another text or assumed knowledge of a reference

allusion

“All books from that store are new.

These books are from that store.

Therefore, these books are new.”

a form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion

is drawn from them

syllogism

While pondering the stars and deciding never to fall in love again, nor even date,

our heroine fell asleep and dreamed.

a long sentence where your main point is at the end

periodic sentence

“There’s no stigmata connected with going to a shrink.”

~Little Carmine in The Sopranos

absurd or humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion

with one of similar sound

malapropism

“I’m afraid I am going to have to let you go.”

an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or harsh

euphemism

“…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

the placing of opposing words within the same sentence

to emphasize their disparity

antithesis

“Take thy face hence.”

~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

using part of a thing to represent the whole thing

synecdoche

“I hate intolerant people.”~ Gloria Steinem

a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases:

a contradiction in terms

oxymoron

“Hello darkness, my old friendI've come to talk with you again . . ..”

~ Paul Simon, “The Sounds of Silence”

an address to the dead as if living; to the inanimate as if animate;

to the absent as if present; to the unborn as if alive

apostrophe

“I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung

my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.”

~ Mark Twain, “Old Times on the Mississippi”

deliberate exaggeration for emphasis

hyperbole

“The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot.”

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden 1854

a statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has some truth

paradox

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to

suffering. I sense much fear in you.”

~ Frank Oz as Yoda in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menance

repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near

the beginning of the next

anadiplosis

"I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."Ovid

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."William Shakespeare, Macbeth

a verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression

is balanced against the first with the parts reversed – an ABBA Pattern

chiasmus

“Ogres are like onions.”

~Mike Myers as the voice of Shrek in Shrek

an explicit comparison between two unlike things with the use of “like” or “as”

simile

The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night.

a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent

something with which it is associated, such as using “the crown” to refer to a monarch

metonymy

“I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to

stop talking about myself for five minutes.”

Kinky Friedman, When the Cat's Away

repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row:

this is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent

anaphora

“For no government is better than the men who compose it, and I want the best, and we need the

best, and we deserve the best.”

Senator John F. Kennedy, speech at Wittenberg College, Oct. 17, 1960

the repetition of a group of words at the end of successive clauses

epistrophe

"Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war--not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government--not any other thing. We are

the killers."Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, 1968

the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate

words, phrases, or clauses

polysyndeton

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."

Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964

a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning

is opposite to what was expected

irony

“It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped,And whirr when it stood still.

I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.”Tom Paxton, “The Marvelous Toy”

a literary device in which the sound of a word is related to its meaning

onomatopoeia

“Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.”

the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects

personification

“[S]he had no room for gaiety and ease. She had spent the golden time in grudging

its going.”Dorothy Parker, “The Lovely Leave”

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

alliteration

“Anyway, like I was saying, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's

uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup,

shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it.”

Bubba in Forrest Gump, 1994

the omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses

asyndeton