Figures by Type with Link Definition

figures which change the typical meaning of a word or

Tropes
words
figures which move the letters or syllables of a word from
Metaplasmic Figures
their typical places
figures which omit something--eg. a word, words, phrases,
Figures of Omission
or clauses--from a sentence
Figures of Repetition
figures which repeat one or more words
(words)
Figures of Repetition
figures which repeat a phrase, a clause or an idea
(clauses and ideas)
Figures of Unusual Word
figures which alter the ordinary order of words or sentences
Order
a miscellaneous group of figures which deal with emotional
Figures of Thought
appeals and techniques of argument
 Tropes Definition
the substitution of a word for a word whose
metaphor
meaning is close to the original word
a noun is substituted for a noun in such a
way that we substitute the cause of the
thing of which we are speaking for the
thing itself; this might be done in several
metonymy ways: substituting the inventor for his
invention, the container for the thing
contained or vice versa, an author for his
work, the sign for the thing signified, the
cause for the effect or vice versa
substitution of part for whole, genus for
synecdoche
species, or vice versa
expressing a meaning directly contrary to
irony
that suggested by the words
a double metonymy in which an effect is
metalepsis
represented by a remote cause
paradox a seemingly self contradictory statement,
which yet is shown to be true
Example
Poor broken glass, I often did
behold/ In thy sweet
semblance my old age new
born...---The Rape of
Lucrece,1758-59
I must comfort the weaker
vessel, as doublet and hose
ought to show itself
courageous to petticoat.---As
You Like It, 2.4.6
Was this the face that
launched a thousand ships,/
And burnt the topless towers
of Ilium?---Dr. Faustus,
12.80-81
He was no notorious
malefactor, but he had been
twice on the pillory, and once
burnt in the hand for trifling
oversights.---Direccions for
Speech and Style
Woe worth the mountain
that the mast bear/ Which
was the first causer of all my
care (Medea cursing
Jason).---The Arte of English
Poesie, 183
For what the waves could
never wash away/ This
 proper youth has wasted in a
day.---The Arte of English
Poesie, 226
O modest wantons! wanton
a condensed paradox at the level of a
oxymoron modesty!---The Rape of
phrase
Lucrece, 401
the substitution of one part of speech for
Lord Angelo dukes it well.---
anthimeria another; for instance, an adverb for a noun
Measure for Measure, 3.2.100
or a noun for an adverb
deliberate understatement or denial of the He is no fool.---The Arte of
litotes
contrary English Poesie, 184
His legs bestrid the ocean, his
rear'd arm/ Crested the
exaggerated or extravagant statement used
world, his voice was
hyperbole to make a strong impression, but not
propertied/ As all the tuned
intended to be taken literally
spheres...---Antony and
Cleopatra, 5.2.82

Metaplasmic
Definition Example
Figures
addition of letters to the I all alone beweep my outcast state.---
prosthesis
beginning of a word Shakespeare Sonnets, 29
Use every man after his desert, and
omission of letters from the
aphaersis who should 'scape whipping?---Hamlet,
beginning of a word
2.2.561
addition of letters to the Lie blist'ring fore the visitating sun.---
epenthesis
middle of a word Two Noble Kinsmen, 1.1.146
Thou thy worldly task hast done,/
omission of letters from the
syncope Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
middle of a word
Cymberline, 4.2.258
addition of letters to the end I can call spirits from the vasty deep.---
paragoge
of a word Henry IV, Part I, 3.1.52
I am Sir Oracle,/ And when I ope my
omission of letters from the
apocope lips let no dog bark!---The Merchant of
end of a word
Venice, 1.1.93
 substitution of a letter or Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature,
antisthecon sound for another within a cesse!---All's Well That Ends Well,
word 5.3.75
transposition of a letter out With liver burning hot. Frevent.---The
metathesis
of its normal order in a word Merry Wives of Windsor, 2.1.122

Figures of
Definition Example
Omission
And he to England shall along
ellipsis omission of a word
with you.---Hamlet, 3.3.1
How Tarquin wronged me, I
an ellipsis of a verb, in which one verb
zeugma Collatine.---The Rape of Lucrece,
is used to govern several clauses
819
A maid in conversation chaste, in
scesis speech mild, in countenance
omission of the verb of a sentence
onamaton cheerful, in behavior modest ...
[etc.]---The Garden of Eloquence
Haply you shall not see me more;
anapodoton omission of a clause or if,/ A mangled Shadow.---
Antony and Cleopatra, 4.2.26.
He said you were, I dare not tell
stopping a sentence in midcourse so you plaine:/ For words once out,
aposiopesis
that the statement is unfinished never returne againe.---The Arte
of English Poesie, 139
I will make no mention of his
When the orator feigneth and maketh
drunken banquets nightly, and
as though he would say nothing in
his watching with bawds, dicers,
some matter, when, notwithstanding
occupatio whore masters. I will not name
he speaketh most of all, or when he
his losses, his luxurity, and
saith something: in saying he will not
staining of his honesty.---The
say it.---The Garden of Eloquence, 130
Garden of Eloquence, 131

Figures of Definition Example

 Repetition
(words)
emphatic repetition of a
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I
epizeuxis word with no other words
have lost my reputation.---Othello, 2.3.264
between
Disturb his hours of rest with restless
repetition of the same trances,/ Afflict him in his bed with
word or root in different bedrid groans;/ Let there bechance him
polyptoton
grammatical functions or pitiful mischances,/ To make him moan
forms but pity not his moans.---The Rape of
Lucrece, 974-977
Whoever hath her wish, thou has thy
repetition of a word, but in
antanaclasis Will,/ And Will to boot, and Will in
two different meanings
overplus---Shakespeare Sonnets, 135
repetition of a word at the
Mad world! Mad kings! Mad
anaphora beginning of a clause, line,
composition!---King John, 2.1.561
or sentence
I'll have my bond!/ Speak not against my
repetition of a word at the
bond!/ I have sworn an oath that I will
epistrophe end of a clause, line, or
have my bond.---The Merchant of Venice,
sentence
3.3.4
Most true that I must fair Fidessa love,/
Most true that fair Fidessa cannot love./
repetition of both
symploce Most true that I do feel the pains of love,/
beginnings and endings
Most true that I am captive unto love.---
Fidessa, 62
Blood hath bought blood, and blows have
repetition of the beginning answer'd blows:/ Strength match'd with
epanalepsis
at the end strength, and power confronted power.---
King John, 2.1.329-30
For I have loved long, I crave reward/
repetition of the end of a Reward me not unkindly: think on
anadiplosis line or clause at the next kindness,/ Kindness becommeth those of
beginning high regard/ Regard with clemency a
poor man's blindness---Fidessa, 16
My conscience hath a thousand several
tongues,/ And every tongue brings in a
gradatio repeating anadiplosis
several tale,/ And every talecondemns me
for a villain.---Richard III, 5.3.194
congeries a heaping together and But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd,
 piling up of many words
bound in/ To saucy doubts and fears.---
that have a similar
Macbeth, 3.4.24
meaning
repetition of words, in
successive clauses, in Thy sea within a puddle's womb is
antimetabole reverse grammatical order; hearsed,/ and not the puddle in thy sea
a chiasmus on the level of dispersed.---The Rape of Lucrece, 657-658
words (AB; BA)
Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad,/
the needless repetition of And to the ground his eyes were lowly
pleonasm words; a tautology on the bent,/ Simple in shew, and voyde of
level of a phrase malice bad...---The Faerie Queene, Book
1, 1.29

Figures of
Repetition
Definition Example
(clauses and
ideas)
arrangement of clauses or I may, I must, I can, I will, I do/
auxesis sentences in ascending order of Leave following that which it is gain
importance to miss.---Astrophil and Stella, 47
repetition of phrases or clauses
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to
of equal length and
isocolon women, French to men, and
corresponding grammatical
German to my horse.---Charles V
structure
If you have a friend, keep your
needless repetition of the same
friend, for an old friend is to be
idea in different words;
tautology preferred before a new friend, this I
pleonasm on the level of a
say to you as your friend.---The
sentence or sentences
Garden of Eloquence, 49
reversal of grammatical
But O, what damned minutes tells
structures or ideas in sucessive
he o'er/ Who dotes, yet doubts;
chiasmus phrases or clauses, which do not
suspects, yet strongly loves.---
necessarily involve a repetition
Othello, 3.3.169
of words
 A bliss in proof; and prov'd, a very
repetition of clauses or idea by woe;/ Before, a joy propos'd;
antithesis
negation behind a dream.---Shakespeare
Sonnets, 129
the replacement of a single word
by several which together have
While memory holds a seat/ In this
periphrasis the same meaning; a
distracted globe...---Hamlet, 1.4.96
substitution of more words for
less

Figures of
Unusual Word Definition Example
Order
arrangment by reversal of
ordinary word order, usually Figures pedantical---Love's Labour's
anastrophe
confined to the transposition Lost, 5.2.407
of two words only
Yet I'll not shed her blood,/ Nor scar
departure from ordinary word
hyperbaton that whiter skin of hers than snow...---
order
Othello, 5.2.3
My dame that bred me up and bare
hysteron
reversal of temporal order me in her wombe.---The Arte of
proteron
English Poesie, 142
a reversal of words which Open the day, and see if it be the
hypallage
seems to change the sense window.---The Garden of Eloquence
But now my Deere (for so love makes
a word, phrase, or sentence me to call you still)/ That love I say,
parenthesis inserted as an aside in a that lucklesse love, that works me all
sentence complete by itself this ill.---The Arte of English Poesie,
141

Figures of Definition Example

 Thought
the impossibility of Words cannot convey how much your
adynaton expressing oneself letters have delighted me.---Elementorum
adequately to the topic rhetorices libri, 44f
Whether he took them from his fellows
more impudently, gave them to an harlot
true or feigned doubt or more lasciviously, removed them from the
aporia
deliberation about an issue Roman people more wickedly or altered
them more presumptuously, I cannot well
declare.---The Garden of Eloquence, 109
a correction or revision of Shameful it is--ay, if the fact be known...---
correctio
previous words The Rape of Lucrece, 239
representing an imaginary
or absent person as
With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st
speaking or acting;
prosopopoeia the skies,/ How silently, and with how wan
attributing life, speech or
a face!---Astrophil and Stella, 31
inanimate qualities to
dumb or inanimate objects

a diversion of discourse
from the topic at hand to Within a month.../ She married--O most
apostrophe addressing some person or wicked speed: to post/ With such dexterity
thing, either present or to incestuous sheets...---Hamlet, 1.2.153
absent