FIGURES OF SPEECH

 FIGURES OF SPEECH 

Figure-of-Speech may be classified as under: 

1. Those based on resemblance 

• Simile 

• Metaphor 

• Personification 

• Apostrophe 

2. Those based on Contrast: 

• Antithesis 

• Epigram 

* Oxymoron

* Paradox

3. Those based on Association: 

• Metonymy 

• Synecdoche 

4. Those depending on Construction: 

• Climax 

• Anticlimax 

1. ALLITERATION: Alliteration refers to the repetition of an initial consonant sound, at least three times in a sentence.  

EXAMPLES :

• A peck of pickled peppers

• Don't delay the dawn disarming display. Dusk demands daylight. 

• Sara's seven sisters slept soundly in the sand.

 • Sally sells sea shells by the seashore” 

2. SIMILE:  In Simile, a comparison is made between two objects of different kinds with at least one point in common. The Simile is introduced by the word ‘as…as’ or 'like'. 

“Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get” 

EXAMPLES: 

• As active as quicksilver 

• As afraid as a grasshopper 

• As ageless as the sun 

• As agile as a cat 

• As agile as a monkey 

• As alert as a bird 

• As alike as two peas 

• As alone as a leper 

• As alone as Crusoe 

• As ambitious as the devil 

3. METAPHOR: An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common (as if two things were one.)

EXAMPLES:

• The camel is the ship of the desert. 

• Life is a dream. 

• The news was a dragger to his heart. 

• Revenge is a kind of wild justice. 

• “My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill” 

* NOTE: Every SIMILE can be compressed into a METAPHOR, and Every METAPHOR can be expanded into a SIMILE. 

EXAMPLES:

• Tanaji fought as fiercely as a loin. (Simile) 

• Tanaji was a lion in the fight. (Metaphor) 

• The waves thundered on the shore. (Metaphor) 

• The waves broke on the shore with a noise like thunder. (Simile)

•My love is like a red, red rose,

 That's newly sprung in June. (Simile) 

• Love is a rose but you better not pick it. (Metaphor)

4. ANTITHESIS: In Antithesis, a striking opposition or contrast of words or sentiments is made in the same sentence. It is employed to secure emphasis. 

EXAMPLES:

• Man proposes, but God disposes. 

• Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more. 

• Speech is silver, but Silence is Gold. 

• Many are called, but few are chosen. 

• To err is human, but to forgive on the divine. 

5. OXYMORON: A figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear side by side or at once of the same thing. 

EXAMPLES:

• She accepted it as the kind cruelty of a surgeon’s knife. 

• It is an open secret.

6. PARADOX: A statement that appears to contradict itself in the same sentence. 

EXAMPLES :

“War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery.” Though we know these things aren’t true, they present an interesting paradox that makes a person think seriously about what they have just read or heard. 

7. IRONY: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.  It is often used to poke fun at a situation that everyone else sees as a very serious matter. 

EXAMPLES :

“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”

 8. APOSTROPHE:  An Apostrophe is a direct address to the dead, to the absent, or to a personified object or idea. This figure is a special form of Personification. 

EXAMPLES:

• Milton! You should not be living at this hour. 

• Friend! I know not which way I must look for comfort.

• Roll on! Thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll. 

• Death! Where is thy sting? O Grave! Where is thy victory?

 9. EUPHEMISM: Euphemism consists in the description of a disagreeable thing by an agreeable name. 

EXAMPLES:

• You are telling me a fairy tale. (You are telling me lies) 

• He is gone to heaven. (He is dead) 

•We have to let you go. (You're fired.)

•You're well fed. (You're fat.)

10. HYPERBOLE: Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

EXAMPLES:

• Why, man, if the river is dry, I am able to fill it with tears. 

• Hamlet! You have not cleft my heart in twain. 

•“It was as big as a mountain! It was faster than a cheetah! It was dumber than a rock!” 

11. SYNECDOCHE: A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole 

EXAMPLES :

ABCs for alphabet or the whole for a part 

England won the World Cup in 1966.

Seeing eyes, helping hands.

12. ONOMATOPOEIA: This is the use of a word that actually sounds like what it means. 

Onomatopoeia (pronounced ON-a-MAT-a-PEE-a) refers to words (such as bow-wow and hiss ) that imitate the sounds 

Good examples include “hiss” or “ding-dong” or “fizz.”

13. PERSONIFICATION: In Personification, inanimate objects and abstract notions are spoken of as having life and intelligence. 

 This is a way of giving an inanimate object the qualities of a living thing.

EXAMPLES: 

• Death lays its icy hands on King. 

• Pride goes forth on horseback, grand and gay. 

• Laughter is holding on both sides. 

•“The tree quaked with fear as the