Kinds of Sound Device Meaning Example

ALLITERATION It is a repetition of the same consonant Fall fathom five thy father lies.
sound.
ASSONANCE It is the repetition of the same or She combs her hair with a comb that is golden.
similar vowel sound.
CONSONANCE It has identical consonants but different Spilled-spelled, starred-stirred, gone-gun
vowels.
ONOMATOPOEIA The sound of the word suggests its Crash, murmur, hiss, cackle, scratch, cough
meaning.
REPITITION The use of same word or phrase in
several lines

Figures of Speech Meaning Example

SIMILE It is a direct comparison of two unlike objects by the His face was as red as a desert
use of like or as. sunset.
METAPHOR It is an implied comparison. I was a lonely cloud.
PERSONIFICATION It gives the characteristics of human being to The mountain sat upon the plain in
inanimate objects. his tremendous chair.
APOSTROPHE It addresses an absent person as if present, dead Goodbye, proud world; I’m going
person as if alive, an inanimate objects as if animate home.
HYPERBOLE It is deliberate and extravagant exaggeration usually Before me stood a mountain of man.
humorous.
IRONY It expresses an idea and mean the other. Silent as politician.
METONOMY It replaces the name of the object which is closely He is addicted to the battle.
associated with it.
SYNECDOCHE The part is used for the whole.
ANTITHESIS It is a contrast in words or clauses, as well as in Love is so short, forgetting is so
ideas, in order to emphasize both parts of the long.
contrast. Man proposes, God disposes.
LITOTES It emphasizes its subject by conscious War is not healthy for children and
understatement. for living things.
OXYMORON Two contrasting words are jammed or put together. Found missing, silent scream, living
dead
UNDERSTATEMENT It is the opposite of hyperbole.
ALLUSION A reference, explicit or implicit, in previous history
or literature.
PARADOX A contradictory or incomplete elements statement
which at first, it seems absurd but at a closer
reading, it can communicate real truth.
EPIGRAM It is a witty, short, concise statement which has the
nature of a proverb.
CLIMAX It is which a series of thoughts or statements are
arranged in the order of increasing importance.
ANTICLIMAX It results when the climatic order is reversed. It is
often used in humorous writing.
EPITHET It is a word generally an adjective, used to impart
strength or, ornament to diction.
It’s a little warm today.
There is no “open sesame” to the
treasure of learning.
Mine eyes, when opened, with thy
beauty fill-
But when they’re closed they see
thee better still.
The fastest colors are those who
will not run.
He sacrificed his business, his
home, and his honor for political
gain.
He lost his wife, his child, his
household goods, and his dog at one
full swoop.
Alexander the Great; Aristides the
just; Richard the Lion Hearted.