Explanation:

Grammar

Can You Find 27 Figure Of Speech Examples In This Puzzle?

UPDATED February 21, 2020 Derek Haines177160 Views

27 Figures of Speech

Our English language is rich with literal and figurative language. But what is a figure of speech?

It is a rhetorical device that a writer or speaker deliberately uses to create an implied comparison with a word or phrase.

A common figure of speech often uses an inanimate object. It uses words to convey a figurative instead of a literal meaning.

I am sure you know the expression, all the world’s a stage by William Shakespeare.

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The world is not literally a stage where men and women perform plays.

Shakespeare uses the word stage to give an abstract meaning to how we all live and behave in our world.

We use many types of figures of speech every day

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We use many types of figures of speech every day

Figures of speech examples

How good is your knowledge of figures of speech?

A figure of speech cartoon by Ella Baron

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Get your figure of speech expressions right

Very often, we also use similes and metaphors to express an idea or concept.

Idioms are another type of figurative speech.

We use thousands of figurative expressions in our everyday language.

Figures of speech examples

We often use an inanimate object as an implied comparison in a figure of speech.

It helps to create emphasis. For example, it’s raining cats and DOGS and I’ll give you a hand.

No animals are falling from the sky. And you would not chop off your hand with an axe to give it to someone.

Both of these expressions are a play on words.

These two figurative language phrases literally mean that it is raining very heavily, and I’ll gladly assist you.

If you are a writer or an author, you are using words and expressions, both literally and figuratively, all the time.

You might be trying to create verbal irony, express human qualities, or add color to your text.

The most common literary devices are metaphors and similes. These are both well-known figurative expressions.

Another type of figurative FORM uses word order repetition or similar successive clauses, such as in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Other rhetorical devices can use a chiasmus, where the second part of the expression is balanced against the first. For example, you should work to live, not live to work.

Exaggeration, or hyperbole in literary terms, can quickly turn a word or phrase from literal language into figurative. It deliberately makes a situation significant.

I have a MILLION things to do at the office today, or, it cost me an arm and a leg.

The opposite, of course, is an understatement that makes a situation seem less important.

It’s only a scratch when referring to a DEEP or nasty wound. Or, it’s a little fresh today when the temperature is well below zero. Or, Tiger Woods was a half-decent golf player in his prime.

Other figures of speech examples include euphemisms.

They are very common forms of saying something in a way that is more polite or not as blunt or direct.

He passed away instead of he died. I’m going to let you go to replace you’re fired. Or, it fell off the back of a truck, when in fact, it was stolen.

Some expressions use alliteration. This is where a consonant sound is repeated. Examples include, I’m as busy as a bee and it’s as dead as a doornail or dodo.