Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An idiom is an expression that has a figurative meaning often related, but different from the literal meaning of the phrase. Example: You should keep your eye out for him. A pun is an expression intended for a humorous or rhetorical effect by exploiting different meanings of words. Example: I wondered why the ball was getting bigger. Then it ...
Metalepsis: figurative speech is used in a new context. Metaphor: an implied comparison between two things, attributing the properties of one thing to another that it does not literally possess. [19] Metonymy: a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept.
In classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Plato's The Republic (Book VII) and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa (Livy ii. 32). Among the best-known examples of allegory, Plato 's Allegory of the Cave , forms a part of his larger work The Republic .
The first known use of the word literally was in the 15th century, [2] or the 1530s. [3] [2] The use of the word as an intensifier emerged later, at the latest by 1769, [4] [5] when Frances Brooke wrote the following sentence: [4] He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
The term trope derives from the Greek τρόπος (tropos), 'a turn, a change', [8] related to the root of the verb τρέπειν (trepein), 'to turn, to direct, to alter, to change'; [6] this means that the term is used metaphorically to denote, among other things, metaphorical language.
Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing and discussing literary works.
Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...