Figures of Speech

 

             Any intentional deviation from literal statement or common usage that emphasizes, clarifies, or embellishes both written and spoken language is called a figure of Speech.

                              OR

              A figure of speech is a word or phrase that means something more or something other than it seems to say. There are so many figures of Speech, Some of them are given below:

1. Similie :

             A simile is a figure of speech that draws comparison between two things using the words 'like' or 'as'.

 

For example: 

● " The harsh thunder of imperial power

Would fade into sleep

Like a sunset's crimson splendour."

● " Emeralds, rubies, pearls are all

as the glitter of a rainbow."

2. Metaphor :

          The metaphor is a comparison made between two different things having something in common without using a comparative word.

For example : 

●" She is a shining star."

● " World is a Stage."

3. Personification: 

          Giving human characteristics to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions.

For example :

● " death lays his icy hands on king."

● " the wind howled".

4.  Irony :

           Irony is used to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning.

For example:

● Describing someone who says foolish things a “genius”.

● Stating during a thunderstorm, “beautiful weather we’re having”.

5. Alliteration :

                The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

 For example:

● Will wanted warm weather.

● Boston baked beans.

6. Hyperbole :

          Using exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

For example:

● " I have told you a million times."

● " the bag weighs a ton".

7. Metonymy:

              Metonymy  is a figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original.

 

For example: 

● The power of the crown was mortally weakened. (Here 'crown' means a 'king').

8. Oxymoron:

             It is a term which features two words which appear to contradict each other bu make sense of the situation overall.

For example:

● "That woman is pretty ugly."

9. Assonance :

         Assonance is the similarity in sound between vowels in the middle of neighbouring words.

For example:

● 'Brown cow'

● 'How now.'

10. Anaphora :

         Anaphora is when a word is repeated multiple times within a phrase.

For example :

● "He had one apple, one banana and one pear."

11. Onomatopoeia

             The words that are inspired by the sounds of living or inanimate beings in nature that emit those sounds.

For example:

● "Can you hear the clicks coming from the roof? "

● The corn went pop in the microwave.

● The car horn beeped loudly.

12. Apostrophe :

           Apostrophe is speaking to an object or item that is not alive as if it were in fact, alive.

For example:

● " Come on trousers, you have to fit me."

13. Idiom :

               Idiom is a word formed by using more than one word together and rarely in connotation of a single word to express a certain concept, a certain emotion or situation.

For example:

● "Blasting fire" (Excessively angry)

● "Couch potato" (Lazy person)

14. Antithesis :

               Antithesis is applying a juxtaposition of ideas which are contrasting in a statement that is balanced.

For example:

● "Man proposes, God disposes."

15. Euphemism :

              Euphemism is the replacement of a phrase which might be deemed offensive by one which implies the same meaning but does not carry offence with it.

For example:

● Instead of "he died" we says "he passed away".

● Instead of "Old people" we says "senior citizens".

16.Litotes :

           Litotes is an understatement which applies a negative to express the meaning of the affirmative.

For example:

● "That dress is not too bad".

●"He is not exactly a poor".

17. Chiasmus :

                  Chiasmus is when two sentences are balanced against one another but with the words reversed.

For example:

● 'Work to live and do not live to work.'

● 'We forget what we want to remember and we remember what we want to forget.'

18.Synechdoche:

              A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.

For example:

● " England lost by six wickets.

●"My dad bought me a new set of wheels".

19. Epigram:

             An epigram is a short pointed saying frequently introducing antithetical ideas which excite surprise and arrest attention.

For example:

● 'The child is the father of a man.'

● 'Fools rush on where angels fear to tread.'

20. Pun :

             A play on words that have same sound, but have different meanings.

For example:

● 'There are two kinds of people, those who can count and those who can't.'

● 'The only date that is a command : March 4th.'