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Figures of Speech

This document defines and discusses various types of figurative language and imagery. It provides definitions and examples of 17 types of figures of speech including alliteration, metaphor, simile, and oxymoron. It also defines imagery as descriptive language that engages the human senses and discusses the five types of imagery related to sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

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Samadrita Das
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60 views4 pages

Figures of Speech

This document defines and discusses various types of figurative language and imagery. It provides definitions and examples of 17 types of figures of speech including alliteration, metaphor, simile, and oxymoron. It also defines imagery as descriptive language that engages the human senses and discusses the five types of imagery related to sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Uploaded by

Samadrita Das
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Figures of Speech

.A Quick Definition of Figurative Language

Figurative language is language that creates a meaning that is different from


the literal interpretation of the words. For instance, the phrase "you are my
sunshine" is figurative language (a metaphor, to be precise). It's not literally
saying that you are a beam of light from the sun, but rather is creating an
association between "you" and "sunshine" to say that you make the speaker feel
warm and happy and also give the speaker life in the same way sunshine does.
1. Alliteration: The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.
2. Anaphora: The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of
successive clauses or verses.
Example: Unfortunately, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time on the
wrong day. 
3. Antithesis: The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
Example: As Abraham Lincoln said, "Folks who have no vices have very few
virtues."
4. Apostrophe: Directly addressing a nonexistent person or an inanimate
object as though it were a living being.
Example: "Oh, you stupid car, you never work when I need you to," Bert
sighed.
5. Assonance: Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in
neighboring words.
Example: How now, brown cow?
6. Euphemism: The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered
offensively explicit. 
Example: "We're teaching our toddler how to go potty," Bob said.

7. Hyperbole: An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the


purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
Example: I have a ton of things to do when I get home.
8. Irony: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.
Also, a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the
appearance or presentation of the idea.
Example: "Oh, I love spending big bucks," said my dad, a notorious penny
pincher.
9. Metaphor: An implied comparison between two dissimilar things that have
something in common.
Example: "All the world's a stage."
10. Onomatopoeia: The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with
the objects or actions they refer to.
Example: The clap of thunder went bang and scared my poor dog.

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 11. . Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory
terms appear side by side.
Example: "He popped the jumbo shrimp in his mouth."
12. Paradox: A statement that appears to contradict itself.
Example: "This is the beginning of the end," said Eeyore, always the
pessimist.
13. Personification: A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or
abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
Example: That kitchen knife will take a bite out of your hand if you don't
handle it safely.
14. Pun: A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and
sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.
Example: Jessie looked up from her breakfast and said, "A boiled egg every
morning is hard to beat."
15. Simile: A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between
two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
Example: Roberto was white as a sheet after he walked out of the horror
movie.
16. Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the
whole.
Example: Tina is learning her ABC's in preschool.
17. Understatement: A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker
deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.
Example: "I got a few scratches in the accident," the man with the bandaged
arm said.

Imagery
What is imagery? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages


the human senses. Though imagery contains the word "image," it does not only
refer to descriptive language that appeals to the sense of sight. Imagery includes
language that appeals to all of the human senses, including sight, hearing, taste,
touch, and smell.

 While imagery can and often does benefit from the use of figurative
language such as metaphors and similes, imagery can also be written
without using any figurative language at all.

Types of Imagery

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There are five main types of imagery, each related to one of the human senses:

 Visual imagery (sight)

 Auditory imagery (hearing)

 Olfactory imagery (smell)

 Gustatory imagery (taste)

 Tactile imagery (touch)

Imagery can be Literal or Figurative

Imagery is neither a type of figurative language nor does it solely involve the
use of figurative language to create descriptions for one simple reason: imagery
can be totally literal. Take the lines from Robert Frost's "After-Apple Picking:"

I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.


And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.

These lines contain powerful imagery: you can feel the swaying ladder, see the
bending boughs, and hear the rumbling of the apples going into the cellar bin.
But it is also completely literal: every word means exactly what it typically
means. So this imagery involves no figurative language at all.

Now, that doesn't mean imagery can't use figurative language. It can! You could
write, for instance, "The apples rumbled into the cellar bin like a stampede of
buffalo," using a simile to create a non-literal comparison that emphasizes just
how loudly those apples were rumbling. To sum up, then: imagery can involve
the use of figurative language, but it doesn't have to.

Why Do Writers Use Imagery?

Imagery is essential to nearly every form of writing, and writers use imagery for
a wide variety of reasons:

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 It engages readers: Imagery allows readers to see and feel what's going
on in a story. It fully engages the reader's imagination, and brings them
into the story.

 It's interesting: Writing without imagery would be dry and dull, while


writing with imagery can be vibrant and gripping.

 It can set the scene and communicate character: The description of


how a person or place looks, moves, sounds, smells, does as much to
tell you about that person or place as any explanation can. Imagery is
not just "window dressing," it is the necessary sensory detail that
allows a reader to understand the world and people being described,
from their fundamental traits to their mood.

 It can be symbolic: Imagery can both describe the world and establish

symbolic meanings that deepen the impact of the text. Such symbolism

can range from the weather (rain occurring in moments of sadness),

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