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| 1660261958 | asyndeton | the omission of conjunctions in a list. e.g. "I came, I saw, I conquered." | 0 | |
| 1660261960 | chiasmus | rhetorical reversal of the order of words in the second of two parallel phrases. (e.g. he came in triumph and in defeat departs - OR - He went to the country, to the town went she.) | 1 | |
| 1660261962 | anaphora | A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Literary device of repetition, in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of a series of lines. (e.g. Martin Luther King's repetition of the phrase "I have a dream that..." I need a break. I need a vacation. I need a very long vacation. - OR - "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." | 2 | |
| 1660261963 | anadiplosis | a rhetorical term for the repetition of the last word from one line or clause to the beginning of the next one. (e.g. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." ~ Yoda, The Phantom Menace. "When I give, I give to myself." ~ Walt Whitman "I am Sam; Sam I am." ~Dr. Suess, Green Eggs and Ham | 3 | |
| 1679394716 | pensive | adj. Engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought; Deeply thoughtful, meditative, reflective. | 4 | |
| 1679394717 | oracular | adj. prophetic; uttered as if with divine authority; mysterious or ambiguous; uttered or delivered as though divinely inspired and thus infallible; can be dictatorial | 5 | |
| 1679394718 | invective | (n.) a strong denunciation or condemnation; abusive language; adj. abusive, harsh, insulting | 6 | |
| 1679394719 | droll | (adj) curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement. "his unique brand of droll self-mockery"; having a humorous, whimsical, or odd quality | 7 | |
| 1679394720 | sardonic | adj. Characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; cynical; sneering | 8 | |
| 1679394721 | apostrophe | n. A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love; in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply | 9 | |
| 1679394722 | juxtaposition | n. Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts, create an intended effect, or reveal an attitude; poetic and rhetorical device in which normally not-associated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, often creating an effect of surprise and wit. | 10 | |
| 1679394723 | oxymoron | n. A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction; form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression. | 11 | |
| 1679394724 | archetype | n. A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response | 12 | |
| 1679394725 | cliche | n. A word or phrase that is so overused that it is no longer effective in most writing situations | 13 | |
| 1679399053 | connotation | All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests | 14 | |
| 1679399056 | metaphor | A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity. | 15 | |
| 1679399057 | cacophony | A harsh, discordant, unpleasant sounding choice and arrangement of sounds | 16 | |
| 1679399058 | allusion | A reference within a piece of literature to another work of literature, art, or music or to a well known historical event, person, or place. The purpose is to give us a fuller understanding of the piece of literature in which it appears by helping us to see it in comparison with something else we may know better. | 17 | |
| 1679399059 | simile | A comparison made between two dissimilar things through the use of a specific word such as like, as, than, or resembles. | 18 | |
| 1679399060 | polysyndeton | Deliberate use of many conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted. Hemingway and the Bible both use extensively. Ex. "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy" | 19 | |
| 1679399061 | epigraph | A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of theme | 20 | |
| 1679399062 | diction | A speaker or writer's choice of words (formal, informal, colloquial, full of slang, poetic, ornate, plain, abstract, concrete, etc.); has a powerful effect on tone | 21 | |
| 1679399063 | torpid | inactive, sluggish, dull | 22 | |
| 1679399064 | truculent | fierce and cruel; aggressive; deadly, destructive; scathingly harsh | 23 | |
| 1679399065 | aberrant | Deviating from the usual or proper course, especially in behavior | 24 | |
| 1679399066 | heretical | characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards | 25 | |
| 1679399067 | dogmatic | authoritatively and or arrogantly assertive of principles, which often cannot be proved; stubbornly opinionated | 26 | |
| 1679399068 | didactic | instructive; used to describe fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking. | 27 | |
| 1679399069 | ardent | Expressing or characterized by warmth of feeling; passionate | 28 | |
| 1679399070 | admonitory | Tending or serving to caution, advise, or counsel; reproving or scolding, or urging to a duty | 29 | |
| 1679399071 | blase | indifferent, bored as a result of having enjoyed many pleasures; apathetic | 30 | |
| 1679399072 | learned | scholarly or educated; also a condition in which repeated attempts to control a situation fail, resulting in the belief that the situation is uncontrollable. | 31 | |
| 1707460673 | antithesis | (n.) the direct opposite, a sharp contrast; Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure; the juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas to give a feeling of balance | 32 | |
| 1707460674 | coherence | Clarity and logical consistency within a speech or an argument. | 33 | |
| 1707460675 | epiphany | A moment of great insight; revelation | 34 | |
| 1707460676 | maxim | A concise statement, often offering advice; an adage, A general truth or rule of conduct; a short saying; fundamental principle, esp. expressed as a proverb or saying | 35 | |
| 1707460677 | inverted sentence | any sentence in which the normal word order is reversed, with the verb coming before the subject or the complete subject and predicate coming after another clause | 36 | |
| 1707460678 | belligerent | (adj.) given to fighting, warlike; combative, aggressive; (n.) one at war, one engaged in war | 37 | |
| 1707460679 | audacious | (adj.) bold, adventurous, recklessly daring | 38 | |
| 1707460680 | obsequious | overly submissive and eager to please, slavishly attentive; servile; sycophantic; | 39 | |
| 1707460681 | poignant | (adj.) deeply affecting, touching; keen or sharp in taste or smell, Deep in meaning. Associated with sorrow, sadness, deeply felt., (adj) important; powerful | 40 | |
| 1707460682 | enigmatic | (adj.) puzzling, perplexing, inexplicable, not easily understood; Mysterious | 41 | |
| 1734721352 | litotes | A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. - the opposite of hyperbole. Examples: "Not a bad idea," "Not many," "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain" (Salinger, Catcher in the Rye). | 42 | |
| 1734721353 | metonymy | A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty"). | 43 | |
| 1734721354 | synedoche | Using one part of an object to represent the entire object (for example, referring to a car simply as "wheels") | 44 | |
| 1734721355 | bucolic | (adj.) characteristic of the countryside, rural; relating to shepherds and cowherds, pastoral | 45 | |
| 1734721356 | obtuse | lacking sharpness of intellect, not clear or precise in thought or expression | 46 | |
| 1734721357 | euphamistic | Using a more pleasant word or expression in place of one that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant. | 47 | |
| 1734721358 | pompous | Filled with excessive self-importance; pretentious; ostentatious; boastful; bombastic | 48 | |
| 1734721359 | pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish; Attempts to use words that will inflate their importance through the use of phrases which end up sounding pompous, affected, or stilted; Ostentatious display of learning, excessive attention to minutiae and formal rules, unimaginative; (language that might be described as "show-offy"; using big words for the sake of using big words). | 49 | |
| 2835686169 | alliteration | stylistic device in which words, repeatedly having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series. | 50 | |
| 2835689756 | nostalgic | wistful, longing for things from the past, reminiscent | 51 |
