Home >Communication Basics >Rhetoric >Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical devices are techniques that speakers and writers use to enhance their arguments and communicate more effectively. They involve using language in a particular way to convince or persuade an audience. The strategic use of these devices can significantly impact communication by adding emphasis, clarity, or emotional expression to convey messages more powerfully and memorably. When applied effectively, rhetorical devices can enhance the persuasiveness of an argument, evoke emotions, and engage the audience’s attention, making the content more compelling and the communication more impactful.

Rhetorical devices are typically distinguished into two broad categories: tropes and schemes. Tropes are figures of speech with an unexpected twist in the meaning of words, where words are used in a sense different from their ordinary meaning to add freshness or emphasis. Examples include metaphor, simile, and irony, which shift meaning to add depth, humor, or clarity.

Schemes are figures of speech that deal with the order, syntax, letters, and sounds, rather than the meaning of words. Schemes often involve patterned word order or playing with sound qualities such as alliteration or assonance to enhance the aesthetics of speech and writing.

Review the list below for some of the most common rhetoric devices, organized by tropes and schemes. To learn more about using rhetorical devices in your writing, check out our page on rhetorical devices for writing style.

Tropes

Tropes are a deviation from the ordinary and principal signification of a word, creating a figurative or symbolic use of language to enhance meaning, evoke emotion, or create vivid imagery. They are used to add stylistic flair, deepen understanding, or introduce complexity and layers of interpretation into a text or speech. Tropes include devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, and irony, each transforming words from their literal sense to a more nuanced or imaginative one. By employing tropes, speakers and writers can craft more engaging, persuasive, and memorable messages, enriching the audience’s experience and comprehension.

Reference

Allusion: An indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

Example: He was a real Romeo with the ladies.

Analogy: A comparison between two things for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

Example: Life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get.

Metaphor: A figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.

Example: Time is a thief.

Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one thing is replaced with a word closely associated with it.

Example: The White House issued a statement.

Personification: Attributing human characteristics to something nonhuman.

Example: The wind whispered through the trees.

Simile: A figure of speech comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as”.

Example: Her smile is like the sun.

Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole.

Example: All hands on deck.

Wordplay and Puns

Antanaclasis: The repetition of a word in two different senses.

Example: If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired, with enthusiasm.

Paronomasia: A play on words that sound similar.

Example: A pun is its own reword.

Pun: A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word.

Example: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Syllepsis: A figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses.

Example: He caught the train and a bad cold.

Zeugma: A figure of speech in which a word applies to multiple parts of the sentence.

Example: She broke his car and his heart.

Substitutions

Euphemism: A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt.

Example: Passed away instead of died.

Hypallage: A figure of speech in which an adjective or participle is transferred from the noun it logically belongs with to another noun in the sentence.

Example: Restless night.

Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one thing is replaced with a word closely associated with it.

Example: The pen is mightier than the sword.

Periphrasis: The use of indirect and circumlocutory speech or writing.

Example: The elongated yellow fruit (for banana).

Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole.

Example: New wheels (meaning a new car).

Overstatement/Understatement

Auxesis: Exaggeration, often with sequential enhancement.

Example: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!

Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.

Example: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.

Litotes: Ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary.

Example: He’s not the friendliest person.

Meiosis: Intentional understatement.

Example: The Atlantic Ocean is a bit damp.

Tapinosis: Giving a name to something which diminishes it in importance.

Example: Referring to a wound as a scratch.

Inversions

Antiphrasis: The use of a word in a sense opposite to its normal sense.

Example: A giant of 3 feet.

Irony: The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite.

Example: A traffic cop gets a parking ticket.

Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.

Example: Deafening silence.

Paradox: A statement that contradicts itself but might be true.

Example: This is the beginning of the end.

Sarcasm: The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

Example: Oh, great! Now I forgot my umbrella!

Schemes

Schemes, unlike tropes, focus on the arrangement of words rather than their meanings. Schemes play with patterns and structures to enhance the rhythm, balance, and emphasis in a sentence. For instance, parallelism creates symmetry in a sentence, while antithesis juxtaposes contrasting ideas to highlight differences. Tropes, on the other hand, involve the figurative use of words to convey meanings beyond their literal sense, such as metaphors or similes. Where tropes bend meaning, schemes mold structure, each crafting language in its unique way to captivate and persuade the audience.

Balance

Antithesis: The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

Example: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Chiasmus: A rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.

Example: Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

Climax: The arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance.

Example: He came, he saw, he conquered.

Isocolon: A figure of speech in which parallelism is reinforced by members that are of the same length.

Example: Veni, vidi, vici.

Parallelism: The use of successive verbal constructions that correspond in grammatical structure.

Example: Easy come, easy go.

Omission/Inclusion

Asyndeton: The omission of conjunctions between parts of a sentence.

Example: I came, I saw, I conquered.

Ellipsis: The omission of a word or series of words.

Example: So… what happened?

Paralipsis: The device of giving emphasis by professing to say little or nothing about a subject.

Example: Not to mention their unpaid debts of several million.

Polysyndeton: The use of several conjunctions in close succession.

Example: We have ships and men and money and stores.

Syllepsis: A word is applied to two others in different senses.

Example: He caught the train and a bad cold.

Repetition

Anadiplosis: The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Example: Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.

Anaphora: The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Example: Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better and better.

Antimetabole: Repetition of words in reverse order.

Example: You like it; it likes you.

Epiphora: The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

Example: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Epizeuxis: Repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession.

Example: The horror, the horror.

Polyptoton: Repetition of words derived from the same root.

Example: To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

Symploce: The simultaneous use of anaphora and epiphora.

Example: When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.

Word Order

Anastrophe: Inversion of the usual order of words.

Example: Powerful you have become; the dark side I sense in you.

Apposition: A relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent.

Example: My brother, the doctor, will be joining us soon.

Hyperbaton: An inversion of the normal order of words.

Example: Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

Parenthesis: An insertion of material that interrupts the typical flow of a sentence.

Example: My family is getting a new dog (we are so excited) next week.

Tmesis: The separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words.

Example: Abso-bloody-lutely.

*Content on this page was curated and edited by expert humans with the creative assistance of AI.