Literary Devices
Chiasmus: Definition, Structure, and 17 Examples
Chiasmus is a figure of speech that reverses the grammar of one phrase to form the next. A sentence's second…
What Is a Colloquialism? Meaning and 50+ Examples
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that belongs to everyday, casual speech rather than formal writing, and it is…
Connotation: Meaning, Types, and Examples in Writing Description
Connotation is the feeling or association a word suggests beyond its literal, dictionary meaning. "Slender" and "skinny" name the same…
Cacophony: Meaning, Examples, and How Writers Use It
Cacophony is the deliberate use of harsh, clashing consonant sounds to make a sentence or line rough on the ear.…
What Is an Allegory? Meaning, Types, and Examples
An allegory is a story that carries a second meaning beneath its surface plot. A children's picture book about star-bellied…
Ambiguity: Meaning, 5 Types, and Examples in English
Ambiguity is a word, phrase, or sentence that genuinely supports more than one interpretation, rather than one meaning stated poorly.…
Dichotomy: Meaning, Examples, and False Dichotomy
A dichotomy splits a single whole into two parts that cannot overlap. Together, the two parts account for everything inside…
Meiosis (Figure of Speech): Definition and Examples
The Greek verb meioun means to make smaller, and English inherited it twice. Biology uses meiosis for the cell division…
65+ Rhetorical Devices With Meanings and Examples
Rhetorical devices are the techniques that turn plain statements into persuasion: repetition that builds pressure, comparisons that transfer feeling, contradictions…
Synecdoche: Definition, Examples, and Pronunciation
Synecdoche is a figure of speech that names a part of something in place of the whole, or the whole…
Litotes: Definition, Types and Examples
Litotes affirms something by denying its opposite: not bad means good, no small feat means impressive. The denial works deliberately,…
Assonance: Definition, Examples, and the Vowel Rule
Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound inside nearby words: the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain…
Metonymy: Definition, Types And 100+ Examples
Metonymy is a figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing with the name of something closely associated…
Pun: Types, Examples, and How to Write One
A pun is a play on words that exploits two meanings or two similar sounds at once, so a single…
Paradox: Definition With 40+ Examples
A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself on the surface yet resolves into truth when you look again: less…
Anaphora: Definition, Examples, and Both Meanings
Anaphora is the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines: I…