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Contributor: Allison Crews. Lesson ID: 13714
There are many kinds of figures of speech. Are you familiar with anaphora, antithesis, apostrophe, assonance, chiasmus, or understatement? Learn more in this lesson!
Other than shouting "Pretty good?!" you might be thinking that's a major understatement.
And you'd be right. Understatements are a figure of speech; one of the many you'll learn if you read on!
A figure of speech is a word or phrase that is used non-literally in order to create an effect for the reader, including:
In this lesson, you'll learn about the following figures of speech.
You might notice that most of those terms have Greek roots.
Ancient Greece was the birthplace of rhetoric as we know it. So these terms explain ways of using language to create meaning that have been used for hundreds of years!
To begin, research the meaning of each figure of speech term listed above. Literary Devices and Terms is a good place to start.
You can take notes in the space below or your notebook. You will want to keep these terms to refer back to later.
Check Your Knowledge
Now put away your definitions. No peeking!
Some of these figures of speech are a little tricky to understand.
Watch the video below to see parallel structure explored in depth with special attention paid to chiasmus and antithesis, the two trickiest terms in this lesson.
Click through to the Got It? section.
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