Figures of Speech: Tropes

Trope: An artful deviation from the ordinary or principal signification of a word.

1. Reference to One Thing as Another

   • Metaphor Reference to one thing as another, implying a comparison.
   • Simile Explicit comparison of one thing to another.
   • Synecdoche A whole is represented by naming one of its parts.
   • Metonymy Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes.
   • Personification Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities.

2. Wordplay and puns

   • Antanaclasis Repetition of a word in two different senses.
   • Paronomasia Using words that sound alike but that differ in meaning (punning).
   • Syllepsis Using a word differently in relation to two or more words that it modifies or governs (sometimes called zeugma).
   • Onomatopoeia Use of words whose sound correspond with their semantic value.

3. Substitutions

   • Anthimeria Substitution of one part of speech for another.
   • Periphrasis Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name.

4. Overstatement/Understatement

   • Hyperbole Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis or effect.
   • Auxesis Reference to something with a name disproportionately greater than its nature (a kind of hyberbole).
   • Litotes Understatement used deliberately.
   • Meiosis Reference to something with a name disproportionately lesser than its nature (a kind of litotes).
     

5. Semantic Inversions

   • Rhetorical Question Asking a question for a purpose other than obtaining the information requested.
   • Irony Using language in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite of what the terms used denote (often by exaggeration).
   • Oxymoron Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another. A compressed paradox.
   • Paradox An apparently contradictory statement that contains a measure of truth.