Figures of Speech

A figure of speech is a deviation from the ordinary use of words with a view to increasing their effect.

Simile

• Simile is a figure in which a comparison is made between two objects of different kinds, which are alike at least in one point. In this figure the words like: ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘so’ are always used.

E.g. 1. He is as strong as a lion. 2. Helen was like a lovely rose.

Metaphor

• Metaphor is a figure in which a comparison is made between two objects of different kinds, which are alike at least in one point, in this figure the words: ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘so’ are not used. In other words, it is an implied simile.

E.g. 1. The camel is the ship of the desert.

2. His mind is a magazine of knowledge.

Personification

• Personification is a figure in which objects without life are spoken of as having the qualities' of human being.

E.g. 1. The earth thirst for rain; when it

rains she smiles with plenty. 2. Death lays his icy hand on kings.

Apostrophe

• Which the speaker addresses some inanimate thing or some abstract ideas as if it were a living person or some absent person as if he were present.

E.g. 1. Oh judgment! Thou are fled to

brutish beasts. 2. O wild west wind! Thou breath of

autumn's being.

Antitheses

• In antitheses a striking opposition of contrast of words or feeling is made in the same sentence. It is employed to source emphasis.

E.g. 1. to err is human, to forgive divine. 2. man proposes, god disposes.

Epigram

• An epigram is a brief pointed saying often in poetical form, frequently introducing antithetical ideas which excite surprise and arrest attention; it closely resembles a proverb.

E.g. 1. A favorite has no friend. 2. Fools rush on where angels fear to

tread.

Paradox

• Paradox is figure of speech in which a truth is conveyed under the form of an apparent absurdity of contradiction.

E.g. 1. The child is father of the man. 2.There is no one so poor as a

wealthy miser.

Oxymoron

• An oxymoron is a figure by which two contradictory qualities are predicted at one and the same time. An adjective is added to a word of quite a contrary meaning.

E.g. 1. She accepted it as the kind cruelty

of the surgeon's knife. 2. parting is such sweet sorrow.

Irony

• Irony is the use of words, the natural meaning of which is just the opposite of what is intended to be expressed. we say one thing but mean just the opposite.

E.G 1.For Brutus is an honorable man. 2. A find friend you are to forsake me

in my trouble.

Euphemism

• Euphemism is a figure by means of which we speak in pleasing or favorable terms of an unpleasant or bad thing.

E.g. 1. She has not the best of temples. 2. You are telling me a fairy tale.

Litotes

• Litotes is the use of negative to express a strong affirmative of the opposite kind.

E.g. 1. I can assure you he is no fool. 2. The first flight across the channel

was no small achievement.

Metonymy

• Metonymy means “a change of name” and is so called because in this figure a thing is spoken of not by its own name, but by the name of some conspicuous accompaniment.

E.g. 1. You must address the chair. 2. From the cradle to the grave, life is

as struggle.

Synecdoche

• Synecdoche or “the understanding of one thing by means of another”. By this figure one noun is changed for another of a similar meaning.

E.g. 1. Give us this day our daily bread. 2. Uneasy lies the head that wears a

crow.

Interrogation or Rhetorical question

• It is a statement thrown into the form of a question for emphasis. No answer is expected to much question.

E.g. 1. What female heart can gold

despise? 2. Are we not the finest people in the

world?

Exclamation

• It is a figure in which the exclamatory form is used to draw grater attention to a point than a mere bald statement of it could do.

E.g. 1. What a piece of work is man! 2. How beautiful Helen of trey was!

Climax

• Climax is a figure in which the sense rise by successive steps to what is more and more important and impressive.

E.g. 1. I came, I saw, I conquered. 2. He begs, he lies, he steals, he kills

for gold.

Anti climax or Bathos

• This is the opposite of climax and signifies a descent from the higher to the lower.

E.g. 1. The soldier fights for glory and a

shilling a day. 2. I die, I faint, I fail.

Hyperbole

• Hyperbole is a greatly exaggerated statement, used mainly for effect, but not intended to be taken literally.

E.g. 1. It is an age since we met. 2. I was bored to death by his

ceaseless chatter.

Transferred epithet

• In this figure an epithet is transferred from a word to which it properly belongs to some other word closely connected with it.

E.g. 1. He stood upon the dizzy cliff. 2. He passed a sleepless night.

Tautology

• Tautology is the use of unnecessary words to express the same idea.

E.g. 1. Pure unadulterated milk is sold here 2. Let us join it together.

Pun

• A pun is a play upon words. E.g. 1. Not on thy sole, on they soul, harsh

Jew. 2. Nell of troy was the death knell of

troy.

Alliteration

• Alliteration consists in the repetition of the same latter or syllable at the beginning of two or more words.

E.g. 1. Full fathom five thy father lies. 2. The lordly lion leaves his lonely lair.

Onomatopoeia

• Onomatopoeia is the employment of words that imitate the sound or echo the sense.

E.g. 1. Doves are cooing, bees buzzing,

and cattle lowing. 2. Our echoes roll from soul to soul.