English > rhetorical device: 1 sense > noun 1, communication| Meaning | A use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance). |
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| Category | rhetoric | study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking) |
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| Part of | rhetoric | Using language effectively to please or persuade |
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| Narrower | anacoluthia, anacoluthon | An abrupt change within a sentence from one syntactic structure to another |
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| anastrophe, inversion | The reversal of the normal order of words |
| antinomasia | substitution / substitution of a title for a name |
| antiphrasis | The use of a word in a sense opposite to its normal sense (especially in irony) |
| antithesis | The juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas to give a feeling of balance |
| apophasis | mentioning something by saying it will not be mentioned |
| aposiopesis | breaking off in the middle of a sentence (as by writers of realistic conversations) |
| apostrophe | address to an absent or imaginary person |
| asyndeton | The omission of conjunctions where they would normally be used |
| catachresis | strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as 'blatant' to mean 'flagrant') or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor |
| chiasmus | inversion in the second of two parallel phrases |
| climax | arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness |
| conversion | Interchange of subject and predicate of a proposition |
| ecphonesis, exclamation | An exclamatory rhetorical device |
| emphasis | Special and significant stress by means of position or repetition e.g. |
| enallage | A substitution / substitution of part of speech or gender or number or tense etc. (e.g., editorial 'we' for 'I') |
| epanorthosis | immediate rephrasing for intensification or justification |
| epiplexis | A rhetorical device in which the speaker reproaches the audience in order to incite or convince them |
| hendiadys | Use of two conjoined nouns instead of a noun and modifier |
| hypallage | reversal of the syntactic relation of two words (as in 'her beauty's face / face') |
| hyperbaton | reversal of normal word order (as in 'cheese I love') |
| hypozeugma | Use of a series of subjects with a single predicate |
| hypozeuxis | Use of a series of parallel clauses (as in 'I came, I saw, I conquered') |
| hysteron proteron | reversal of normal order of two words or sentences etc. (as in 'bred and born') |
| litotes, meiosis | understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary) |
| onomatopoeia | Using words that imitate the sound they denote |
| paralepsis, paraleipsis, paralipsis, preterition | Suggesting by deliberately concise treatment that much of significance is omitted |
| paregmenon | juxtaposing words having a common derivation (as in 'sense and sensibility') |
| polysyndeton | Using several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted (as in 'he ran and jumped and laughed for joy') |
| prolepsis | anticipating and answering objections in advance |
| repetition | The repeated use of the same word or word pattern as a rhetorical device |
| trope, figure of speech, figure, image | language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense |
| wellerism | A comparison comprising a well-known quotation followed by a facetious sequel |
| Broader | device | Something in an artistic work designed to achieve a particular effect |
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| Spanish | figura retórica |
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| Catalan | figura retòrica |
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