Metaphor
Understatement
Oxymoron
A figure of thought in which the term for part of something is used to represent the whole, or, less commonly, the term for the whole is used to represent a part.
Attribution of a lifelike (human or animal) quality to an inanimate object or idea.
Synecdoche
A form of irony in which a point is deliberately expressed as less, in magnitude, value, or importance, than it actually is.
Simile
A comparison between two different objects using the word "like" or "as".
A compressed paradox that closely links two seemingly contrary elements in a way that, on further consideration, turns out to make good sense.
Litotes
Personification
A figure of thought in which a point is affirmed by negating its opposite.
A trope in which a statement that appears on the surface to be contradictory or impossible turns out to express an often-striking truth.
The comparison of a subject to something that is similar to it in order to clarify the subject’s nature, purpose, or function.
A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, clause expresses a complete thought and can sand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause.
Hyperbole
A comparison between two unlike things.
Clause
Analogy
A trope in which a point is stated in a way that is greatly exaggerated. The effect of hyperbole is often to imply the intensity of a speaker’s feelings or convictions by putting them in uncompromising or absolute terms.
A trope which substitutes the name of an entity with something that is closely associated with it.
Paradox
Metonymy
