Top 20 Rhetorical Elements

TOP 20 RHETORICAL ELEMENTS WITH EXAMPLES (HELPFUL FOR AP LANG) 1. Alliteration- the repetition of a initial consonance or sound (EX: She sells sea shells) 2. Anaphora- repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses (EX: Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States (from: Obama at 2004 Democratic National Convention.)) 3. Apostrophe- The direct address of an absent or imaginary person (EX: Clint Eastwood at the Republican Convention) 4. Antithesis- Sharply contrasting ideas (hope is the antithesis of despair) 5. Assonance- Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words. (EX: tilting at windmills) 6. Chiasmus- a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as “flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike” (Coleridge). 7. Euphemism- The substitution of an inoffensive term in place of an offensive one (Pushing daisies instead of dead) 8. Hyperbole- A purposely exaggerated statement used for effect 9. Irony- The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions obvious 10. Litotes- A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite; it refers to an ironical understatement (e.g. no small amount) or two negatives used to make a positive (e.g. it was not unsuccessful 11. Metaphor- An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. 12. Metonymy- one thing is named or referred to by the name of another, (EX: the use of White House in referring to the presidential administration.) 13. Onomatopoeia- The formation