LINGUISTICS

Main article: Scheme (linguistics)

• accumulation: Summary of previous arguments in a forceful manner
• adnomination: Repetition of a word with a change in letter or sound
• alliteration: Series of words that begin with the same consonant or sound alike
• adynaton: hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility.
• anacoluthon: Change in the syntax within a sentence
• anadiplosis: Repetition of a word at the end of a clause at the beginning of another
• anaphora: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses
• anastrophe: Inversion of the usual word order
• anticlimax: Arrangement of words in order of decreasing importance
• antimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse order
• antistrophe: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses (see epistrophe)
• antithesis: Juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas
• aphorismus: Statement that calls into question the definition of a word
• aposiopesis: Breaking off or pausing speech for dramatic or emotional effect
• apostrophe: Directing the attention away from the audience and to a personified abstraction
• apposition: Placing of two elements side by side, in which the second defines the first
• assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse
• asteismus: Facetious or mocking answer that plays on a word
• asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between related clauses
• cacophony: Juxtaposition of words producing a harsh sound
• cataphora: Co-reference of one expression with another expression which follows it (example: If you need one, there's a towel in the top drawer.)
• classification (literature & grammar): Linking a proper noun and a common noun with an article
• chiasmus: Word order in one clause is inverted in the other (inverted parallelism).
• climax: Arrangement of words in order of increasing importance
• commoratio: Repetition of an idea, re-worded
• consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse
• dystmesis: A synonym for tmesis
• ellipsis: Omission of words
• enallage: Substitution of forms that are grammatically different, but have the same meaning
• enjambment: Breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses
• enthymeme: Informal method of presenting a syllogism
• epanalepsis: Repetition of the initial word or words of a clause or sentence at the end of the clause or sentence
• epistrophe: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of successive clauses. The counterpart of anaphora (also known as antistrophe)
• euphony: Opposite of cacophony - i.e. pleasant sounding
• hendiadys: Use of two nouns to express an idea when the normal structure would be a noun and a modifier
• hendiatris: Use of three nouns to express one idea
• homeoptoton: in a flexive language the use the first and last words of a sentence in the same forms
• homographs: Words that are identical in spelling but different in origin and meaning
• homonyms: Words that are identical with each other in pronunciation and spelling, but differing in origin and meaning
• homophones:Words that are identical with each other in pronunciation but differing in origin and meaning
• hypallage: Changing the order of words so that they are associated with words normally associated with others
• hyperbaton: Schemes featuring unusual or inverted word order
• hyperbole: Exaggeration of a statement
• hysteron proteron: The inversion of the usual temporal or causal order between two elements
• isocolon: Use of parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses
• internal rhyme: Using two or more rhyming words in the same sentence
• kenning: A metonymic compound where the terms together form a sort of anecdote
• merism: Referring to a whole by enumerating some of its parts
• non sequitur: Statement that bears no relationship to the context preceding
• onomatopoeia: Word that imitates a real sound (e.g. tick-tock or boom)
• paradiastole: Repetition of the disjunctive pair "neither" and "nor"
• parallelism: The use of similar structures in two or more clauses
• paraprosdokian: Unexpected ending or truncation of a clause
• parenthesis: Insertion of a clause or sentence in a place where it interrupts the natural flow of the sentence
• paroemion: Resolute alliteration in which every word in a sentence or phrase begins with the same letter
• parrhesia: Speaking openly or boldly, or apologizing for doing so (declaring to do so)
• perissologia: The fault of wordiness
• pleonasm: Use of superfluous or redundant words
• polyptoton: Repetition of words derived from the same root
• polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions
• pun: When a word or phrase is used in two different senses
• sibilance: Repetition of letter 's', it is a form of alliteration
• sine dicendo: A statement that is so obvious it need not be stated, and if stated, it seems almost pointless (e.g. 'It's always in the last place you look.')
• superlative: Declaring something the best within its class i.e. the ugliest,the most precious
• spoonerism: Interchanging of (usually initial) letters of words with amusing effect
• symploce: Simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning and the end of successive clauses
• synchysis: Interlocked word order
• synesis: Agreement of words according to the sense, and not the grammatical form
• synizesis: Pronunciation of two juxtaposed vowels or diphthongs as a single sound
• synonymia: Use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentence
• tautology: Redundancy due to superfluous qualification; saying the same thing twice
• tmesis: Division of the elements of a compound word
• zeugma: The using of one verb for two actions

Tropes

Main article: Trope (linguistics)

• allegory: Extended metaphor in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject
• alliteration: Repetition of the first consonant sound in a phrase.
• allusion: Indirect reference to another work of literature or art
• anacoenosis: Posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker
• antanaclasis: A form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses
• anthimeria: Substitution of one part of speech for another, often turning a noun into a verb
• anthropomorphism: Ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god (see zoomorphism)
• antimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order
• antiphrasis: Word or words used contradictory to their usual meaning, often with irony
• antonomasia: Substitution of a phrase for a proper name or vice versa
• aphorism: Tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion, an adage
• apophasis: Invoking an idea by denying its invocation
• apostrophe: Addressing a thing, an abstraction or a person not present
• archaism: Use of an obsolete, archaic, word (a word used in olden language, e.g. Shakespeare's language)
• auxesis: Form of hyperbole, in which a more important sounding word is used in place of a more descriptive term
• catachresis: Mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)
• circumlocution: "Talking around" a topic by substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or periphrasis
• commiseration: Evoking pity in the audience
• correctio: Linguistic device used for correcting one's mistakes, a form of which is epanorthosis
• denominatio: Another word for metonymy
• double negative: Grammar construction that can be used as an expression and it is the repetition of negative words
• dysphemism: Substitution of a harsher, more offensive, or more disagreeable term for another. Opposite of euphemism
• epanorthosis: Immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue
• enumeratio: A form of amplification in which a subject is divided, detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly
• epanados: Repetition in a sentence with a reversal of words. Example: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath
• erotema: Synonym for rhetorical question
• euphemism: Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another
• exclamation: An emphatic parenthetic addition that is complete in itself, exclamation differs from interjection in that it usually involves an emotional response.
• hermeneia: Repetition for the purpose of interpreting what has already been said
• hyperbaton: Words that naturally belong together are separated from each other for emphasis or effect
• hyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis
• hypocatastasis: An implication or declaration of resemblance that does not directly name both terms
• hypophora: Answering one's own rhetorical question at length
• hysteron proteron: Reversal of anticipated order of events; a form of hyperbaton
• innuendo: Having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not
• inversion: A reversal of normal word order, especially the placement of a verb ahead of the subject (subject-verb inversion).
• invocation: Apostrophe to a god or muse
• irony: Use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning
• kataphora: Repetition of a cohesive device at the end
• litotes: Emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite
• malapropism: Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar
• meiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something
• merism: Statement of opposites to indicate reality
• metalepsis: Referring to something through reference to another thing to which it is remotely related
• metaphor: Stating one entity is another for the purpose of comparing them in quality
• metonymy: Substitution of an associated word to suggest what is really meant
• neologism: The use of a word or term that has recently been created, or has been in use for a short time. Opposite of archaism
• onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning
• oxymoron: Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other
• parable: Extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson
• paradox: Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth
• paradiastole: Extenuating a vice in order to flatter or soothe
• paraprosdokian: Phrase in which the latter part causes a rethinking or reframing of the beginning
• parallel irony: An ironic juxtaposition of sentences or situations (informal)
• paralipsis: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it over
• paronomasia: A form of pun, in which words similar in sound but with different meanings are used
• pathetic fallacy: Using a word that refers to a human action on something non-human
• periphrasis: Using several words instead of few
• personification/prosopopoeia/anthropomorphism: Attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena
• praeteritio: Another word for paralipsis
• procatalepsis: Refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument
• prolepsis: Another word for procatalepsis
• proslepsis: Extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic
• proverb: Succinct or pithy expression of what is commonly observed and believed to be true
• pun: Play on words that will have two meanings
• repetition: Repeated usage of word(s)/group of words in the same sentence to create a poetic/rhythmic effect
• rhetorical question: Asking a question as a way of asserting something. Asking a question which already has the answer hidden in it. Or asking a question not for the sake of getting an answer but for asserting something (or as in a poem for creating a poetic effect)
• satire: Use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. A literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. A literary genre comprising such compositions
• simile: Comparison between two things using like or as
• snowclone: Quoted or misquoted cliché or phrasal template
• superlative: Saying that something is the best of something or has the most of some quality, e.g. the ugliest, the most precious etc.
• syllepsis: Form of pun, in which a single word is used to modify two other words, with which it normally would have differing meanings
• syncatabasis (condescension, accommodation): adaptation of style to the level of the audience
• synecdoche: Form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the whole
• synesthesia: Description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
• tautology: Needless repetition of the same sense in different words Example: The children gathered in a round circle
• transferred epithet: Placing of an adjective with what appears to be the incorrect noun
• truism: a self-evident statement
• tricolon diminuens: Combination of three elements, each decreasing in size
• tricolon crescens: Combination of three elements, each increasing in size
• zeugma: A figure of speech related to syllepsis, but different in that the word used as a modifier is not compatible with one of the two words it modifies
• zoomorphism: Applying animal characteristics to humans or gods