Terms : Hide Images
| 6285161583 | anaphora | repetition of initial words | 0 | |
| 6285162783 | ellipsis | words left out are understood as part of a sentence | 1 | |
| 6285166098 | asyndeton | no conjunctions are used; ex. I came, I saw, I conquered | 2 | |
| 6285170007 | polysyndeton | many conjunctions are used: ex. I shopped and cleaned and called and waited. | 3 | |
| 6285186048 | ad hominem fallacy | attacking a person instead of an idea in an argument | 4 | |
| 6285190479 | false dilemma | only 2 choices are given when there are actually many choices | 5 | |
| 6285193383 | periphrasis | speaking around an issue by using a description for a name; also called circumlocution: ex: He who must not be named. | 6 | |
| 6285200502 | idiom | words combined that have a meaning of their own that wouldn't make sense to speakers of other languages: ex. "the whole ball of wax" | 7 | |
| 6285206247 | synecdoche | swapping one thing for a collection of things: The White House announced.... | 8 | |
| 6285209573 | hypophora | the self-answering question: ex., Why are we here? To protest. | 9 | |
| 6285215183 | antithesis | weighs one argument against another by placing opposites side-by-side: ex., It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. | 10 | |
| 6285221682 | dialysis | weighs two arguments side-by-side. Also called the either/or figure: ex., We can win or we can be slaves. | 11 | |
| 6285231133 | litotes | also called understatement: makes a point by denying its opposite. ex., It was a not unproductive meeting. | 12 | |
| 6285242293 | climax | uses the last part of a clause to begin the next clause; ex., ...for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost. | 13 | |
| 6285250498 | parenthesis | inserting words unrelated to the main idea of the sentence with or without actual parentheses: ex., He came home late, a fairly common situation, because he'd been drinking. | 14 | |
| 6285385803 | declarative sentence | a simple statement: most sentences are this type | 15 | |
| 6285386701 | interrogative sentence | a question ending in a question mark | 16 | |
| 6285388176 | rhetorical question | a question for which there is either no answer or the answer is obvious. | 17 | |
| 6285390724 | imperative sentence | a command | 18 | |
| 6285397190 | apostrophe | speaking to a person or inanimate object that isn't there: ex., Oh, West Wind, blow, blow me home. | 19 | |
| 6285401164 | parody | a type of satire that imitates an original in a mocking way | 20 | |
| 6285413917 | allusion | a reference to something outside the word, usually a mythological, historical, literary, or Biblical incident. | 21 | |
| 6285420344 | oxymoron | contradictory words placed beside each other: soft rock | 22 | |
| 6285424789 | paradox | an idea or statement that seems contradictory but makes sense: The best companion is solitude. | 23 | |
| 6285433737 | diction | word choice which affects meaning and creates tone | 24 | |
| 6285436859 | post hoc ergo propter hoc | a fallacy in which one believes that what happened first caused what happened next: ex., Because Trump was elected, we lost power. | 25 | |
| 6285455414 | chiasmus | A figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas. Ex: It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men. (Mae West) | 26 | |
| 6285459656 | paralipsis | a kind of irony in which the speaker proposes not to speak of a matter, but still somehow reveals it. Ex.: I won't bring up the senator's dirty tax deals... | 27 | |
| 6285469327 | zeugma | A technique wherein one verb governs several words, or clauses, each in a different sense. Ex.: She shot a hole-in-one and an album full of photos. | 28 | |
| 6285473657 | epigram | a rhetorical device that is a memorable, brief, interesting and surprising satirical statement. Ex: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness (Eleanor Roosevelt) | 29 | |
| 6318215989 | syncrisis | a figure that reframes an argument by redefining it: It's not zoning out on music; it's mindfulness. | 30 | |
| 6318252967 | deliberative rhetoric | rhetoric that deals with choices. Aristotle felt this was the cornerstone of democracy. | 31 | |
| 6318261559 | demonstrative rhetoric | argument that deals with values that bring a group together, which usually focuses on right versus wrong. | 32 | |
| 6318268174 | forensic rhetoric | rhetoric that determines who is at fault: courtrooms deal in forensic rhetoric (so do couples arguing about whose fault something is). | 33 | |
| 6318285761 | erotema | a question that either has no answer or for which the answer is obvious; a rhetorical question | 34 | |
| 6318291251 | solecism | the figure of ignorance; a generic term for illogic or bad grammar or syntax--ain't kiddin' | 35 | |
| 6318304983 | metastasis | a figure of thought that skips over an awkward matter by changing the subject or distracting | 36 | |
| 6318320243 | metanoia | self-editing figure: you stop to correct yourself with a stronger point to sound ethical and caring | 37 | |
| 6318331245 | tautology | redundancy in logic: A = B because it = B. | 38 | |
| 6318342732 | decorum | your ability to fit in with the audience's expectations of a trust-worthy person | 39 | |
| 6318348505 | phronesis | practical wisdom or street savvy; folks trust you because you "know what to do and say." | 40 | |
| 6318361017 | kairos | rhetorical timing: the ability to seize a persuasive moment, to choose the best occasion. | 41 | |
| 6318374980 | onomatopoeia | words that sound like the sound they describe. This can create enargeia, the sense that something is happening before the audience's very eyes--and ears. | 42 | |
| 6318395031 | oxymoron | a paradox made up of two seemingly dissimilar words: "peaceful revolution." | 43 |
