Figures of Speech
Noah Harvey and Zach Bonk
The Nine Figures of Speech
1. Alliteration
· The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
i. She sells sea-shells by the seashore.
2. Onomatopoeia
· The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
i. The water plops into the pound.
3. Oxymoron
· A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.
i. The jumbo shrimp was sad.
4. Personification
· A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
i. The pig was talking to the bee.
5. Assonance
· Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
i. It beats… as it sweeps… as it cleans.
6. Hyperbole
· An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
i. I was a million times smarter than that guy.
7. Irony
· The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.
i. A man who is a traffic cop gets his license suspended for unpaid parking tickets.
8. Metaphor
· An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.
i. I was colder than ice.
9. Simile
· A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
i. I ran like the wind.