Flashcards: Figures of speech

Sarcasm is "a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter gibe or taunt.

Tip of the tongue (or TOT) is the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent.

In traditional grammar, a solecism is a phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar.

Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from ἀντί "against" and θέσις "position") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together for contrasting effect.

In phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/; Greek ἐπένθεσις) or sometimes vyanjanabhakti (/ˈvjəndʒənəˌbəkti/; from Sanskrit: व्यञ्जनभक्ति) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word.

Epistrophe (Greek: ἐπιστροφή, "return") is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.

In phonology, syncope (/ˈsɪŋkəpiː/; Greek: syn- + koptein "to strike, cut off") is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.

An oxymoron (usual plural oxymorons, less commonly the Greek-style oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes elements that appear to be contradictory, but which contain a concealed point.

Pleonasm (/ˈpliːənæzəm/; from Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmos), from πλέον (pleon), meaning "more, too much") is the use of more words or parts of words than is necessary or sufficient for clear expression: examples are black darkness, burning fire, or people's democracy.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing.

In law, a merism is a figure of speech by which a single thing is referred to by a conventional phrase that enumerates several of its parts, or which lists several synonyms for the same thing.

Apophasis (Greek ἀπόφασις from ἀπόφημι apophemi, "to say no") is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer brings up a subject by either denying it, or denying that it should be brought up.

A pissing contest, or pissing match, is a game in which participants compete to see who can urinate the highest, the farthest, or the most accurately.

Aphorismus (from the Greek: ἀφορισμός, aphorismós, "a marking off", also "rejection, banishment") is a figure of speech that calls into question if a word is properly used ("How can you call yourself a man?").