Rhetorical Terms Definitions
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| 208806047 | Pun | A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings | 0 | |
| 208806048 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length occurring frequently in or throughout a work | 1 | |
| 208806049 | Simile | An explicit comparison normally using like or as or if | 2 | |
| 208806050 | Metaphor | A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things | 3 | |
| 208806051 | Irony | The Contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant | 4 | |
| 208806052 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. Hyperboles often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Irony often is produced as well | 5 | |
| 208806053 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. Ex. "Chicago won by 4 runs" (referring to the Chicago White Sox) | 6 | |
| 208806054 | Metonymy | A term from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name" , a metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. A news release that claims "the White House declared" rather than "the president declared" is using metonymy. | 7 | |
| 208806055 | Oxymoron | From the Greek phrase "pointed foolish," an oxymoron is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. | 8 | |
| 208806056 | Paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense, but upon close inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. | 9 | |
| 208806057 | Onomatopoeia | A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Ex. Boom. Bang. | 10 | |
| 208806058 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction such as liberty or love. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. | 11 | |
| 208806059 | Euphemism | From the Greek for "good speech," Euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. Ex. Earthy Remains rather that Corpse | 12 | |
| 208806060 | Parallelism (Scheme of Balance) | Also referred to as parallel construction or parallel structure, this term comes from the Greek roots meaning "beside one another". It also refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs to give structural similarity. | 13 | |
| 208806061 | Chiasmus | A figure of speech based on inverted parallelism. It is a rhetorical figure in which two clauses are related to each another through a reversal of terms. The purpose is usually to make a larger point or to provide balance or order. | 14 | |
| 208835226 | Antithesis | A figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure. The Resulting parallelism serves to emphasize opposition of ideas. | 15 | |
| 208835227 | Syntax | The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is similar to diction, but you can differentiate the two by thinking of syntax as refering to groups of words, while diction refers to individual words. | 16 | |
| 208835228 | Anaphora | The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as do in I like it and so do they. | 17 | |
| 208835229 | Climax | Culminate in an exciting or impressive event. | 18 | |
| 208835230 | Ad hominem argument | From the Latin meaning "to or against the man," this is an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason, to feeling rather than intellect. | 19 | |
| 208835231 | Allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. | 20 | |
| 208835232 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words. Ex. "She sells sea shells" | 21 | |
| 208835233 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 22 | |
| 208835234 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with, or pointing out its similarity to, something more familiar. | 23 | |
| 208835235 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. | 24 | |
| 208835236 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle. An aphorism can be a memorable summation of the author's point | 25 | |
| 208835237 | Atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects. | 26 | |
| 208835238 | Caricature | A representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive feature or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect. | 27 | |
| 208835239 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate, clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by a independent clause. | 28 | |
| 208835240 | Colloquialism | Slang or informality in speech or writing. | 29 | |
| 208835241 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness due to the unusual comparison being made. | 30 | |
| 208835242 | Connotation | A non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning | 31 | |
| 208841479 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 32 | |
| 209934745 | Diction | Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. | 33 | |
| 209934746 | Didactic | From Greek, "didactic" literally means "instructive". Didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles. | 34 | |
| 209934747 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 35 | |
| 209934748 | Figure of Speech | A device used to produce a figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include, for example, apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 36 | |
| 209934749 | Generic Convention | This term describes traditions for each genre. These conventions help to define each genre, for example, they differentiate between an essay and journalistic writing or an autobiography and political writing, | 37 | |
| 209934750 | Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. However, genre is a flexible term; within these broad boundaries exist many subdivisions that are often called genres themselves. | 38 | |
| 209934751 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 39 | |
| 209934752 | Imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstraction. | 40 | |
| 209934753 | Inference/infer | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. | 41 | |
| 209934754 | Invective | An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language | 42 | |
| 209934755 | Irony | The contrast between what is stated and what is really meant. | 43 | |
| 209934756 | Verbal Irony | The words literally state the opposite of the writer (or speakers) true meaning | 44 | |
| 209934757 | Situational Irony | The events turn out to be the opposite of what was expected. | 45 | |
| 209934758 | Dramatic Irony | The facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work. | 46 | |
| 209934759 | Juxtaposition | Placing dissimilar items, descriptions, or ideas close together or side by side, especially for comparison and contrast. | 47 | |
| 209934760 | Loose Sentence | A type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by the dependent grammatical units such as phrase and clauses. If a period were placed at the end of the independent clause, the clause would be a complete sentence. | 48 | |
| 209934761 | Mood | This term has two distinct technical meaning in English writing. The first meaning is grammatical and deals with verbal units and a speaker's attitude. The indicative mood is used only for factually sentences. | 49 | |
| 209934762 | Narrative | The telling of a story for an account of an event or series of events. | 50 | |
| 209934763 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 51 | |
| 209934764 | Pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish. | 52 | |
| 209934765 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This independent clause ins preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. | 53 | |
| 209934766 | Personification | A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. | 54 | |
| 209934767 | Point of View | In literature, the perspective from with a story is told. There are two general divisions of point of view and many subdivisions within those. | 55 | |
| 215380188 | Predicate Adjectives | One type of subject complement- an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb. It is in the predicate of the sentence, and modifies or describes the subject | 56 | |
| 215380189 | Predicate Nominative | A second type of subject complement- a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that renames the subject. It, like the predicate adjective, follows a linking verb and is located in the predicate of the sentence. | 57 | |
| 215380190 | Prose | One of the major divisions of genre, "prose," refers to fiction and non-fiction, including all its forms, because they are written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech. Technically, anything that isn't poetry or drama is prose | 58 | |
| 215380191 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 59 | |
| 215380192 | Rhetorical Appeal | The persuasive device by which a writer tries to sway the audience's attention and response to any given work. Consist of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos. | 60 | |
| 215380193 | Sarcasm | From the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," sarcasm involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. | 61 | |
| 215380194 | Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies, or social institutions and conventions, for reform or ridicule. | 62 | |
| 215380195 | style | The consideration of style has two purposes: 1. The sum of the choices the author makes 2. Classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors. | 63 | |
| 215380196 | Subject Complement | The word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it. | 64 | |
| 215380197 | Subordinate Clause | Like all clauses, this word group contains both a subject and a verb, but unlike the independent clause, the subordinate clause cannot stand-alone; it does not express a complete thought. It depends on the main clause. | 65 | |
| 215380198 | Syllogism | From the Greek for "Reckoning together," a syllogism is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises- first one called major and the second minor- that inevitably will lead to a sound conclusion | 66 | |
| 215380199 | Symbol/ Symbolism | Generally anything that represents or stand for something else. Natural symbols use objects and occurrences from nature whereas Conventional symbols are those that have been invested with meaning by a group | 67 | |
| 215380200 | Syntax | The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Similar to diction. | 68 | |
| 215380201 | Theme | The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life | 69 | |
| 215380202 | Tone | Similar to mood, describes the author's attitude toward his or her material, audience, or both. Easier to determine in spoken language. | 70 | |
| 215380203 | Transition | A word or phrase that links different ideas. | 71 | |
| 215380204 | Understatement | The ironic minimizing of fact, it presents something as less significant than it is. | 72 | |
| 215380205 | Litotes | A figure of speech by which an affirmation is made indirectly by denying the opposite. It uses understatement for emphasis, frequently with a negative assertion. | 73 | |
| 215380206 | Meiosis | The Greek term for understatement or belittling; rhetorical figure by which something is referred to in terms less important than it really deserves. It describes something very impressive with simplicity | 74 | |
| 215380207 | Wit | In modern usage, it is intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. A witty statement is humorous, while suggesting the speaker's verbal power in creating ingenious and perceptive remarks. | 75 | |
| 215380208 | Attitude | The writer's intellectual position or emotion regarding the subject of the writing. | 76 |
