figure of speechn. pl. figures of speech An expression that uses language in a nonliteral way, such as a metaphor or synecdoche, or in a structured or unusual way, such as anaphora or chiasmus, or that employs sounds, such as alliteration or assonance, to achieve a rhetorical effect. |
figure of speechn (Literature / Rhetoric) an expression of language, such as simile, metaphor, or personification, by which the usual or literal meaning of a word is not employed
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms | Noun | 1. | figure of speech - language used in a figurative or nonliteral sensecakewalk - an easy accomplishment; "winning the tournament was a cakewalk for him"; "invading Iraq won't be a cakewalk" blind alley - (figurative) a course of action that is unproductive and offers no hope of improvement; "all the clues led the police into blind alleys"; "so far every road that we've been down has turned out to be a blind alley" megahit, smash hit, blockbuster - an unusually successful hit with widespread popularity and huge sales (especially a movie or play or recording or novel) sleeper - an unexpected hit; "that movie was the sleeper of the summer" home run, bell ringer, bull's eye, mark - something that exactly succeeds in achieving its goal; "the new advertising campaign was a bell ringer"; "scored a bull's eye"; "hit the mark"; "the president's speech was a home run" housecleaning - (figurative) the act of reforming by the removal of unwanted personnel or practices or conditions; "more housecleaning is in store at other accounting firms"; "many employees were discharged in a general housecleaning by the new owners" goldbrick - anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless lens - (metaphor) a channel through which something can be seen or understood; "the writer is the lens through which history can be seen" rhetorical device - a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance) conceit - an elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar things irony - a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs kenning - conventional metaphoric name for something, used especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry metaphor - a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity metonymy - substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they counted heads') oxymoron - conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence') simile - a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as') synecdoche - substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa zeugma - use of a word to govern two or more words though appropriate to only one; "`Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave' is an example of zeugma" domino effect - the consequence of one event setting off a chain of similar events (like a falling domino causing a whole row of upended dominos to fall) flip side - a different aspect of something (especially the opposite aspect); "the flip side of your positive qualities sometimes get out of control"; "on the flip side of partnerships he talked about their competition" period - the end or completion of something; "death put a period to his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility" summer - the period of finest development, happiness, or beauty; "the golden summer of his life" dawn - an opening time period; "it was the dawn of the Roman Empire" evening - a later concluding time period; "it was the evening of the Roman Empire" rainy day - a (future) time of financial need; "I am saving for a rainy day" |
figure of speechnoun expression, image, turn of phrase, trope It was just a figure of speech.Figures of speech alliteration, allusion, anacoluthia, anadiplosis, analogy, anaphora, anastrophe, antiphrasis, antithesis, antonomasia, apophasis, aporia, aposiopesis, apostrophe, catachresis, chiasmus, circumlocution, climax, emphasis, epanaphora, epanorthosis, exclamation, gemination, hendiadys, hypallage, hyperbaton, hyperbole, hysteron proteron, inversion, irony, kenning, litotes, malapropism, meiosis, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, paralipsis or paraleipsis, parenthesis, periphrasis, personification, pleonasm, polysyndeton, prolepsis, prosopopoeia or prosopopeia, repetition, rhetorical question, sarcasm, simile, spoonerism, syllepsis, synechdoche, tmesis, zeugma
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