FIGURES OF

SPEECH
FIGURE OF
SPEECH
▪ A figure of speech is a phrase or word having
different meanings than its literal meanings. It
conveys meaning by identifying or comparing
one thing to another, which has connotation
or meaning familiar to the audience. That is
why it is helpful in creating vivid rhetorical
effect.
 TYPES OF FIGURES OF
SPEECH
Simile
▪ It is a type of comparison between things or objects by using “as” or “like.”
Personification
▪ It occurs when a writer gives human traits to non-human or inanimate objects. It is similar
to metaphors and similes that also
use comparison between two objects
Metaphor
▪ Metaphor is comparing two unlike objects or things, which may have some common
qualities.
Hyperbole uses extreme exaggeration. It exaggerates
to lay emphasis on a certain quality or feature.
Irony is used to stress on the opposite meaning of a word.
When people are looking to be sarcastic, they employ irony. It
is often used to poke fun at a situation that everyone else sees
as a very serious matter.

• “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the

War Room!”
• He was so intelligent, that he failed all his
This puts two words together that seem to contradict
each other. Oxymoron involves the usage of
contradictory terms to describe an object, situation or
incident.
• Military • open secret,
intelligence,” • tragic
• “real phony,” comedy
• “civil war,” • exact
• “silent yell” estimate
• original
This figure of speech completely contradicts itself in
the same sentence.

• War is peace
• Ignorance is
strength
• Freedom is
slavery.”
An apostrophe is used when a person who is
absent or nonexistent is spoken to.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little

star, How I wonder what
you are. Up above the
world so high, Like a
diamond in the sky.
This is a contradiction that pits two ideas against
each other in a balanced way.
In a climax, the words are placed in an ascending order, depending
on their significance. These words generally revolve around a central
theme and are arranged in an increasing order to create a strong
impression on the mind of the reader.

• "There are three things that will endure: faith, hope,

and love. But the greatest of these is love." - 1
Corinthians 13:13
An anticlimax as a figure speech refers to the building up a
climax that results in something that cannot really be
described as a climax.

• On discovering that his friend was murdered, with

vengeance on his mind Ravi rushed back to his college,
only to find his friend sipping on coffee in the college
canteen.
This is a figure of speech in which one thing is
meant to represent the whole.

EXAMPLES:
• “ABCs” for alphabet
• “new set of wheels” for car
• “9/11” to demonstrate the whole of the
tragedy that happened in the United States on
September 11, 2001.
• England won the World Cup in 1966
In this figure of speech, one word that has a very
similar meaning can be used for another. A metonymy
is a figure of speech where one word or phrase is
used in place of another. With metonymies, a name of
a particular thing is substituted with the name of a
thing that is closely related to it.

• “crown” for “royalty”

• “lab coats” for
“scientists”
• The White House said”
Thank You