10 Figures of Speech with Examples (1)

A figure of speech is a rhetorical device that achieves a special effect by using words in distinctive ways. Though there are hundreds of figures of speech, below are 20 of the most common figures.

You will probably remember many of these terms from your English classes. Whether you are conscious of it or not, you use figures of speech every day in your writing and conversations.

For example, common expressions such as “falling in love,” “racking our brains,” and “climbing the ladder of success” are all metaphors – the most pervasive figure of all. Likewise, we rely on similes when making explicit comparisons  – “light as a feather” “red as blood” and hyperboles to emphasize a point – “I’m starving!”.

Using original figures of speech in our writing is a way to convey meanings in fresh, unexpected ways. Figures can help our readers understand and stay interested in what we have to say.

1. Alliteration

The repetition of an initial consonant sound.

Example: The plantain planter planted plantains in plantain plantations

2. Anaphora

The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. (Contrast with epiphora and epistrophe.)

Example: Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

3. Antithesis

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

Example: Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man, but a giant step for mankind.

4. Apostrophe

Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.

Example:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

5. Asssonance

6. Chiasmus

A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

Example: Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You.

7. Euphemism

The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

Example: Letting someone go instead of firing someone; Passed away instead of died; Ethnic cleansing instead of genocide; Big-boned instead of heavy or overweight; Comfort woman instead of prostitute; Between jobs instead of unemployed; Sanitation engineer instead of garbage man.

An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

Example: I am so hungry I could eat a horse; If I can’t buy that new game, I will die; That joke is so old, the last time I heard it I was riding on a dinosaur

See Also: Some Figures of Speech with Examples (2)