List #7 definitions
Assonance: The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words. She sells sea shells by the sea shore. (repetition of e—this is also an example of alliteration)
Consonance: The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels such as pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack.
Litote: A figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious understatement- for instance the understated “not bad” as a comment about something especially well done. Jonathan Swift (Modest Proposal guy) wrote, “Last week I saw a woman flayed and you would hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse.” Litotes are a figure of speech in which, rather than making a certain statement directly, a speaker expresses it even more effectively, or achieves emphasis, by denying its opposite. For example, rather than merely saying that a person is rather attractive (or even very attractive), one might say that he or she is "not unattractive".By its nature, litotes is a form of understatement, always deliberate and with the intention of subtle emphasis.
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole, such as “fifty masts” representing fifty ships or “100 head of steer” had to be moved to their grazing land.
Epanadiplosis is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and end of a phrase, clause or sentence: Laugh with those that laugh, and weep with those that weep.
Epistropheis the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of different phrases, clauses or sentences: When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. (1 Corinthians 13:11)
Epizeuxis is the repetition of words or phrases next to each other: “A rose is a rose is a rose.” (Gertrude Stein)
Euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise express something unpleasant. (adult entertainment, correctional facility, pre owned truck)
Motif – a recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work; the recurrent presence of certain character types, settings, objects, situations
Pun – a play on words exploiting different possible meanings of a word(s) or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” ~ Groucho Marx
Anadiplosis repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next. It can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression: Most commonly, though, anadiplosis is used for emphasis of the repeated word or idea, since repetition has a reinforcing effect:
Example of anadiplosis in Richard III by William Shakespeare
Act V Scene III
“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.”