Literary Devices
1. Alliteration Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words
placed near each other, usually on the same or adjacent
lines. A somewhat closer definition is that it is the use of
the same consonant in any part of adjacent words.
Example: fast and furious.
2. Onomatopoeia Words that sound like their meanings.
Example: boom, buzz, crackle, gurgle, hiss, pop, sizzle,
snap, swoosh, whir, zip
3. Repetition The purposeful re-use of words and phrases for an
effect.
Example: I was glad; so very, very glad.
4. Anaphora Repetition of clause at the beginning of successive
clause. Example: Don’t break the shutters of the
windows. Don’t scatter the papers. Don’t throw down
the books on the shelf.
5. Hyperbole An outrageous exaggeration used for effect.
Example: He weighs a ton
6. Irony A contradictory statement or situation to reveal a reality
different from what appears to be true.
Example: Wow, thanks for expensive gift...let’s see: did it
come with a Fun Meal or the Burger King?
7. Metaphor A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating
that one is the other or does the action of the other.
Example: Her fingers danced across the keyboard.
8. Oxymoron A combination of two words that appear to contradict
each other.
Example: a pointless point of view; bittersweet
9. Paradox A statement in which a seeming contradiction may
reveal an unexpected truth.
Example: The earlier I go the last I reach.
10. Personification Attributing human characteristics to an inanimate
object, animal, or abstract idea.
Example: The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully.
11. Simile A direct comparison of two unlike things using “like” or
“as.”
Example: He’s as dumb as an ox.
12. Assonance resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby
words, arising particularly from the rhyming of two or
more stressed vowels, but not consonants (e.g. sonnet,
porridge)
13. Symbolism Poetic device using an action that means something
more than its literal meaning. Example: Clean clothes
symbolise peace and tranquillity.
14. Transferred Epithet The use of an adjective with a noun when it refers to
another noun. Example: ‘melancholy darkness’, the
darkness is not melancholy, but it refers to the sad
people
15. Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent
the whole or vice versa, as in England lost by six wickets
(meaning ‘the English cricket team’) /The word “wheels”
refers to a vehicle.
16. Consonance Repetition of the same consonant sounds in adjacent or
nearby words, like the –ck sound in tick tock or the n
sound in lone ranger.
17. Euphemism A word or phrase that softens an uncomfortable topic.
Used to refer to a situation without having to confront
it. For example, if someone was recently fired, they
might say they are between jobs, a common euphemism
for being unemployed
18. Enjambment The continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line
of poetry to the next. An enjambed line typically lacks
punctuation at its line break, so the reader is carried
smoothly and swiftly—without interruption—to the next
line of the poem.
19. Apostrophe The speaker directly addresses someone (or something)
that is not present or cannot respond in reality. The
entity being addressed can be an absent, dead, or
imaginary person, but it can also be an inanimate object
(like stars or the ocean), an abstract idea (like love or
fate), or a being (such as a Muse or God).
20. Imagery The poet uses words to create a mental image using one
or more of our five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste,
touch). Example: She opened her eyes to a mix of
colours as she looked through the window of her
mountain top cottage.
