FIGURES OF SPEECH
1. Simile – indirect comparison using “like,” “as,” or
“seem.”
a. You eat like a pig!
2. Metaphor – direct comparison of two unlike things or
ideas.
a. Money is time.
3. Hyperbole – from “over-casting”; an exaggeration of
ideas for the sake of emphasis.
a. She nearly drowned in her tears.
b. I am so hungry; I could eat a horse!
4. Apostrophe – from “turning away”; addressing an
imaginary character (ie, non-existent person or an
abstract idea) as if it were present and capable of
understanding feelings.
a. Mountains and hills, come and fall on me.
b. Ninoy, are the Filipinos worth dying for?
5. Irony – words are used in such a way that their intended
meaning is different from the actual meaning of the
words.
a. Verbal Irony – contrast between what is said and what is
meant.
i.
It was very kind of you to remind me of my humiliation.
b. Situational Irony – the contrast between the actual result of a
situation and what was expected to happen.
i.
The student who did not study passed the test.
c. Dramatic Irony – a situation in which the audience knows
something that the character does not know.
i.
In a scary movie, the character walks into the house and the
audience knows the killer is in the house.
6. Antithesis – juxtaposition of opposing or contradicting
ideas (statements) in the sentence.
a. Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.
7. Oxymoron – conjoining contradictory terms or words.
a. Deafening silence; bitter sweet; open secret; original copy;
old news
8. Alliteration – series of words that begin with the same
consonant.
a. Fred fried frogs.
9. Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds.
a. I feel depressed and restless.
10.
Climax – structure of ideas from an important to
most important idea.
a. I came, I saw, I conquer.
11.
Anticlimax - structure of ideas from an important to
least important idea.
a. We married, we got engaged, we met.
12.
Metonymy – substituting the name of an attribute
of something for the name of the thing itself.
a. The pen is mightier than the sword.
b. “Laurel” for glory; “guts” for courage; “sweat” for hardwork.
13.
Onomatopoeia - the formation or use of words that
imitate the sound associated with something.
a. The thunder came roaring.
b. The lighting flowed flashing.
14.
Synecdoche - a figure of speech in which a part of
something is used to represent the whole.
a. “ABC’s” for alphabet; “a pair of eyes” for a person; “wheels”
for car.
15.
Periphrasis – the use of excessive and longer
words to convey a meaning which could have been
conveyed with a shorter expression or in a few words.
a. The land of the rising sun – Japan
16.
Personification - the attribution of human qualities
to inanimate or abstract beings
a. The trees are dancing.
b. I see the moon smiling at me.
17.
Rhetorical Question - a question asked for effect
that neither expects nor requires an answer
a. A person enters a dark room and asks out loud, has
someone turned off the lights?