Examples of Figures of Speech
| Figure of Speech |
Definition |
Examples................................................ |
| Simile |
A comparison using like or as. It usually compares two dissimilar objects. |
They were as alike as two peas in a pod.
He was as big as a bus.
She is as dead as a doornail.
The speech was as dry as dust.
She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat.
She has a voice like a baritone sax coming from an oil drum. |
| Metaphor |
States that one thing is something else. It is a comparison, but it does NOT use like or as to make the comparison. |
She had a heart of stone.
All the world's a stage.
She is my East and my West, my compass.
His home was a prison.
Time is the thief you cannot banish.
Time is money. |
| Hyperbole |
An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally. |
These books weigh a ton.
I could sleep for a year
I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
I'm doing a million things right now.
I waited centuries for you. I was so embarrassed, I thought I might die. |
| Personification |
When you assign the qualities of a person to something that isn't human, or isn't even alive. |
The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.
My computer throws a fit every time I try to use it.
The flowers waltzed in the gentle breeze.
At precisely 6:30 am my alarm clock sprang to life.
The popcorn leapt out of the bowl. The blizzard swallowed the town. |
| Allusion |
A brief reference to a person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage.
|
The lady who feeds the homeless everyday is a regular Mother Theresa.
The family of three sat there like the three bears eating their porridge.
David was a scrooge, he never paid for lunch.
He can craft a sentence better than Shakespeare.
Harriet Tubman was called the Moses of her time.
I am afraid of spiders, but I'm no cowardly lion.
as reliable as Benedict Arnold
as persistent as Obama on health care
as mouthy as Howard Stern. |
| Onomatopoeia |
The use of words which sound like the noise they refer to. |
The fire crackled as it kept us warm from the fireplace.
Dave whooshed down the hill
With the click of a mouse I can open another window on my computer.
The fireworks at the parade made a loud boom!
The cymbals gave a clink and a clang as we marched with the band. |
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