Often, I find myself addressing my computer directly, begging it to cooperate with me. “My computer hates me,” is a common phrase I mention to people nearby. I also tend to complain about the ton of socks that need folding and the millions of things I have to do. Basically, I complain a lot, using figure of speech devices like apostrophe, personification and hyperbole.

Describing events in a literal way can be dry and uninteresting. Using figures of speech communicates deeper meaning to deliver more expressive imagery to the listener or reader. In this way, writers and speakers can suggest visuals, create rhetorical effects or produce vivid ideas.

What Is a Figure of Speech?

A figure of speech involves using language in a unique way to paint a distinct picture for the reader. This literary device can be in the form of a phrase or a single word. The intended meaning differs from its ordinary meaning to create an enhanced experience.

Figure of Speech Definition

figure of speech (noun): a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from its literal meaning to produce a rhetorical effect, emphasize or embellish language or create a striking impression.

Why Do Writers Use Figures of Speech?

A skilled writer will use a figure of speech to develop a more memorable description, create an unforgettable impression or convey a specific atmosphere or feeling.

Figures of speech communicate information in a more lively and colorful way. These figurative language tools effectively bring words to life, taking readers on a journey through the writer’s intent.

A figure of speech can:

• Add richness to descriptions or events
• Enhance understanding through the use of comparisons
• Develop striking imagery
• Communicate abstract or complex ideas
• Elicit emotion
• Connect ideas that do not have an apparent relationship
• Create memorable sections of prose
• Make the content more relatable and enjoyable

Figure of Speech Examples

Conversational

People often use figures of speech in everyday conversation.

Hyperbole: Exaggerating to highlight a feature or quality

• My backpack weighs a ton.
• I’ll die if I can’t go to the concert.
• That guy is older than dirt.

Oxymoron: Connecting two opposing ideas

• small crowd
• controlled chaos
• original copy
• deafening silence
• clearly confused

Pun: Using words that have similar sounds or applications to create a double meaning

• This vacuum sucks.
• Make like a tree and leave.
• Some bunny loves you.
• Crabs don’t share because they are shellfish.

Understatement: Expressing less emotion than expected to create an effect or show irony

• A person who gets 100% on an exam saying, “I think I did OK.”
• Someone who crashes a car stating, “I put a few scratches on it.”
• Describing below zero weather as “a little chilly.”

Verbal paradox: Using contradictory statements to reveal a truth

• All I know is I know nothing.
• Less is more.
• You make money by spending it.
• The only constant is change.

Euphemism: Replacing harsh phrases with more pleasant words

• Our organization is going to have to let you go.
• My grandpa is over the hill.
• I need to powder my nose.

Writing

Writers employ figures of speech in their work for many reasons.

Simile: Connecting two things with comparison words

• busy as a bee
• cute as a kitten
• run like the wind
• grows like a weed

Metaphor: Comparing things without comparison words

• drowning in a sea of paperwork
• rollercoaster of emotions
• time is a thief

Personification: Attributing human characteristics to an object

• The sunlight danced across the lake.
• That piece of pizza is calling my name.
• The flowers nodded in the breeze.

Literature

Some figure of speech examples found in works of literature include the following:

Personification

William Wordsworth, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”

“A host, of golden daffodils; / Beside the lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

Alliteration

Toni Morrison, “Sula“

“It was a fine cry – loud and long – but it had no bottom, and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

Paradox

William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar“

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”

Understatement

J.D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye“

“It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”

Simile

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby“

“In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths …”

Common Figures of Speech List

Figure of Speech	Definition	Example
alliteration	The repetition of the first consonant sounds in a group of words	potential power play
anaphora	The repetition of words at the beginnings of a sequence of clauses	“So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from …” (Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream” speech)
antithesis	A rhetorical device that pairs contrasting ideas by using parallel structure	No guts, no glory
apostrophe	Directly addressing someone or something that is not present	“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” (Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet“)
assonance	The repetition of vowel sounds within lines of text	Go slow over the road
chiasmus	A rhetorical figure in which words or concepts repeat in reverse order	“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.” (Lord Byron, “Don Juan”)
euphemism	Figurative language used to replace an unpleasant expression with an agreeable one	passed away
hyperbole	Intentional exaggeration	Her smile was a mile wide.
irony	Conveying meaning by using language that typically signifies the opposite	Saying, “What a lovely day!” during a hurricane.
litotes	A form of verbal irony using understatement	He’s no spring chicken.
metaphor	A comparison by using one word in place of another	This room is a pigsty.
metonymy	Substitution for a name or attribute of a thing or concept	Referring to the American administration as “The White House”
onomatopoeia	Words that sound like their meaning	hiss, sizzle, crack
oxymoron	A self-contradicting statement	definite possibility
paradox	A seemingly contradictory statement that also conveys truth	This is the beginning of the end.
personification	Giving human characteristics to something nonhuman	The wind howled.
pun	A play on words using words that sound similar or convey two possible meanings	I’m a baker because I knead the dough.
simile	A direct comparison of two things using comparison words, such as, “like” or “as”	You were as brave as a lion.
synecdoche	A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole or vice versa	Referring to a vehicle as “wheels.”
understatement	A device in which something is made to seem less important than it is	Saying you “lost a couple of dollars” after losing thousands in a poker game.

What Are the Types of Figures of Speech?

There are numerous kinds of figurative language that are figures of speech. Scholars divide the many forms into two primary categories: tropes and schemes.

Tropes

A literary trope utilizes figurative language to create an artistic image. It originates from the Greek word “trepein,” which means “to turn, to alter, to change.” Tropes change the usual meaning of words to convey a vivid picture or description. Below is the full list of literary tropes.

accismus	allegory	allusion	ambiguity	anacoenosis
analogy	anapodoton	antanaclasis	anthimeria	anthropomorphism
antimetabole	antiphrasis	antistasis	antonomasia	aphorism
apologia	aporia	apophasis	appositive	apostrophe
archaism	auxesis	bathos	burlesque metaphor	catachresis
cataphora	categoria	cliche	circumlocution	congeries
correctio	dehortatio	denominatio	diatyposis	double negative
dirimens copulatio	distinctio	dyphemism	dubitatio	ekphrasis
epanorthosis	encomium	enumeratio	epicrisis	epiplexis
epitrope	erotema	erotesis	euphemism	grandiloquence
exclamation	humor	hyperbation	hyperbole	hypocatastasis
hypophora	Hysteron proteron	illeism	innuendo	inversion
irony	litotes	malapropism	meiosis	memento verbum
merism	metalepsis	metaphor	metonyymy	negative question
neologism	nosism	non sequitur	occupatio	onomatopoeia
oxymoron	par’hyponoian	parable	paradiastole	paradox
paraprosdokian	paralipsis	parody	paronomasia	pathetic fallacy
periphrasis	personification	pleonasm	pareteritio	procatalepsis
proslepsis	prothesis	proverb	pun	redundancy
rhetorical question	satire	sensory detail	sesquipedalianism	simile
snowclone	style	superlative	syllepsis	syncatabasis
synchoresis	synecdoche	synesthesia	tautology	transferred epithet
truism	tricolon diminuens	tricolon crescens	verbal paradox	verba ex ore
verbum volitans	zeugma	zoomorphism

Schemes

Schemes change word order, patterns, syntax, sounds or letters instead of altering the meanings of words or phrases. Below is the full list of literary schemes.

accumulation	adnomination	alliteration	adynaton	anacoluthon
anadiplosis	anaphora	anastrophe	anti-climax	anthimeria
antimetabole	antirrhesis	antistrophe	antithesis	aphorismus
aposiopesis	apposition	assonance	asteismus	asterismos
asyndeton	cacophony	cataphora	classification	chiasmus
climax	commoratio	conduplicatio	conversion	consonance
correlative verse	diacope	dubitatio	dystmesis	ellipsis
elision	enallage	enjambment	epanalepsis	epanodos
epistrophe	epizeuxis	euphony	half rhyme	hendiadys
hendiatris	homeoptoton	homeoteleuton	homographs	homonyms
homophones	hypallage	hyperbaton	hyperbole	hypozeuxis
hysteron proteron	isocolon	internal rhyme	kenning	litotes
merism	mimesis	onomatopoeia	paradiastole	parallelism
paraprosdokian	paremvolia	parenthesis	paroemion	parrhesia
pleonasm	polyptoton	polysyndeton	pun	rhythm
sibilance	sine dicendo	solecism	spoonerism	superlative
synathroesmus	syncope	symploce	synchysis	synesis
synecdoche	synonymia	tautology	tmesis	zeugma

Use Figure of Speech To Create Dynamic Prose

With so many figure of speech examples, you are sure to find a way to craft engaging works that leap off the page and hook the reader with the penetrating power of carefully chosen prose.

Leave a comment and tell us which figure of speech techniques you use in your writing or everyday life. We are all ears!