English > trope: 1 sense > noun 1, communicationMeaning | language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense. |
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Synonyms | figure of speech, figure, image |
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Narrower | conceit | An elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar / dissimilar things |
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hyperbole, exaggeration | extravagant exaggeration |
irony | A trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs |
kenning | conventional metaphoric name for something, used especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry |
metaphor | A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity |
metonymy | Substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in 'they counted heads') |
oxymoron | conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence') |
personification, prosopopoeia | representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature |
simile | A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
synecdoche | Substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa |
zeugma | Use of a word to govern two or more words though appropriate to only one |
Broader | rhetorical device | A use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance) |
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Usage | bell ringer, bull's eye, mark, home run | Something that exactly succeeds in achieving its goal |
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blind alley | (figurative) a course of action that is unproductive and offers no hope of improvement |
blockbuster, megahit, smash hit | An unusually successful hit with widespread popularity and huge sales (especially a movie or play or recording or novel) |
cakewalk | An easy accomplishment |
dawn | An opening time period |
domino effect | The consequence of one event setting off a chain of similar events (like a falling domino causing a whole row of upended dominos to fall / fall) |
evening | A later concluding time period |
flip side | A different aspect of something (especially the opposite aspect) |
goldbrick | Anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless |
helm | A position of leadership |
housecleaning | (figurative) the act of reforming by the removal of unwanted personnel or practices or conditions |
lens | (metaphor) a channel through which something can be seen or understood |
period | The end or completion of something |
rainy day | A (future) time of financial need |
sleeper | An unexpected hit |
summer | The period of finest development, happiness, or beauty |
Spanish | imagen, metáfora, tropo |
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Catalan | imatge, trop, tropo |
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Adjectives | tropical | characterized by or of the nature of a trope or tropes |
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