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| 4878407226 | Absolutes | Infers something must be one way or the other--there is no middle ground. Its found in your wants and needs. i.e. "The world is many-hued, yet people often see it as black and white." or When you are negotiating for a car and assume that the person selling is seeking only to get the max. price, and hence missing that they might reduce the price to someone they like or that they need to sell it today to spend the money on something they want tomorrow. | 0 | |
| 4878407227 | Abstract | Not applied to actual objects acquired, developed, or learned; not naturally occurring; (adj.) existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence; (n.) a summary of the contents of a book, article, or formal speech; (v.) to consider (something) theoretically or separately from something else i.e. "To abstract science and religion from their historical context can lead to anachronism." Abstract diction/abstract imagery is language that describes qualities that CANNOT be perceived with 5 senses Concrete diction is language that describes qualities that CAN be perceived with 5 senses as opposed to using abstract or generalized language. | 1 | |
| 4878407844 | Active Voice | The opposite of passive voice; any sentence with an active verb; In a sentence using active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb. It makes your meaning clear for readers, and keeps sentences from becoming to complicated or verbose. i.e. "Watching the framed, mobile world from the car window reminds me of watching a movie or TV." or "The dispatcher notifies the police that three prisoners have escaped." | 2 | |
| 4878407845 | Ad hominem | Common fallacy which appeals to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason or may attack an opponent's character rather than answering his argument; a personal attack; used to deceive an audience. i.e. When arguers end up saying something that would draw the audience's attention to the distasteful characteristics of an individual. | 3 | |
| 4878408909 | Aesthetic | (adj.) having to do with the appreciation of beauty; (n.) a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement. i.e. "The Cubist aesthetic" Aesthetic rhetoric means using figurative language to construct visual images, like charts, graphs, etc. | 4 | |
| 4878408910 | Affable | (adj.) easy-going; friendly alienated, removed, or disassociated from (friends, family, or homeland); friendly, good-natured, or easy to talk to. i.e. "an affable and agreeable companion." In rhetoric, creating an affable tone serves to disarm the audience and creates a feeling of conversation among friends. | 5 | |
| 4878408911 | Alleviate | (v.) to ease a pain or burden; alliance a union of two or more groups; to make (suffering, deficiency, or a problem) less severe. i.e. "He couldn't prevent her pain, only alleviate it." Much rhetoric serves to alleviate potential inflammatory remarks or actions, like politics. | 6 | |
| 4878409703 | Alliteration | Lit. device where words are used in quick succession and begin with letters belonging to the same sound group. Can be the consonant sound or a specific vowel group; involves creating a repetition of similar sounds in a sentence. Also created when words all begin with the same letter. i.e."His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." | 7 | |
| 4878409704 | Allusion | Usually an implicit reference, to another world of literature or art, to a person or an event. An appeal to a reader to share some experience with the writer. May enrich the work and give it depth. i.e. "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." or "The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora's box of crimes." | 8 | |
| 4878409705 | Ambiguity | In common conversation, it's a negative term applied to vague or equivocal expression when precision would be more useful. i.e. "I rode down the street on a black horse in red pajamas." In literature, it means leaving something undetermined in order to open up multiple possible meanings; any wording, action, or symbol that can read in divergent ways.. i.e. "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness" "Still could mean either "not moving" or "not yet changed" | 9 | |
| 4878409706 | Ambivalent | Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone. i.e. "Some loved her, some hated her, few were ambivalent about her ambivalent attitude to technology." | 10 | |
| 4878411726 | Ample | 1. enough or more than enough, plentiful. i.e. "There is ample time for discussion." 2. large and accommodating 3. used euphemistically to convey that someone is overweight | 11 | |
| 4878413645 | Anadiplosis | Technique of repetition where the last word of the clause begins the next clause, creating a connection of ideas important to author's purpose, often changing or extending the meaning of the initial clause. It's a part of chiasmus, but it DOES NOT precisely repeat the structure of the first clause in the second. i.e. "What I present here is what I remember of the letter, and what I remember of the letter I remember verbatim (including that awful French)." | 12 | |
| 4878415918 | Analogy | A comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it. It aims at explaining an unfamiliar idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar. More extensive & elaborate than a simile or metaphor. Similes & metaphors employed to develop an analogy. i.e. "The structure of an atom is like a solar system. The nucleus is the sun and electrons are the planets revolving around that sun." or "They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while felling him to make sure he was there. It was like handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water." | 13 | |
| 4878416526 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. i.e. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair." | 14 | |
| 4878416527 | Anastrophe | A departure from normal word order for the sake of emphasis. It's often a synonym for hyperbaton -- the changing of the position of only a single word. i.e. "Glistens the dew upon the morning grass." or "She looked at the sky dark and menacing." or "It only stands/Our lives upon,to use Our strongest hands" | 15 | |
| 4878416528 | Anthology | Book or other collection of selected writings by various authors, usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject. i.e. an anthology of Elizabethan drama, an anthology of modern philosophy | 16 | |
| 4878417627 | Anthropomorphism | The attribution of humanlike characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or forces of nature. It truly portrays nonhuman creatures, etc., as human, with human ambitions, thoughts, emotions, etc. i.e. "Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I dies, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as i lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you... Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough." (Animal Farm, Orwell) One of the pigs, old Major is giving a political speech. | 17 | |
| 4878417628 | Antithesis | Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas, often, although not always, in parallel structure. i.e. "It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" or "It can't be wrong if it feels so right" or "To be or not to be, that is the question" | 18 | |
| 4878418422 | Apathetic | (adj.) having or showing little or no emotion; not interested or concerned; indifferent or unresponsive. i.e. apathetic behavior, an apathetic audience | 19 |
