Figurative Language Overview

Introduction

Figurative language has a fundamental impact on readers. By creating new connections between concepts, images or objects that have little to no original link, readers discover new insights and see a more vivid or imaginative picture in their heads. Figurative language is also useful in explaining an abstract concept by comparing it to something else that readers can better relate to. It can transform the seemingly ordinary into something significant.

Essential Questions

1. What is Figurative Language?

2. What are Figurative Devices?

3. How does Figurative Language impact what we read?

Key Terms

Alliteration:  The repetition of words that have the same first consonant sounds either next to each other or close together.

Allusion:  A casual or indirect reference to something else such as another work of literature, a historical event, a biblical story, or mythology.

Figurative Language: Using figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive and impactful. Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, allusions go beyond the literal meanings of the words to give the readers visual images.

Hyperbole:  A figure of speech that is an extreme exaggeration in order to create emphasis.

Repetition:  A literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer.

Simile: A figure of speech that makes a comparison and shows similarities between two different things by using "like" or "as".

Metaphor:  A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison and shows similarities between two different things without using "like" or "as".

Personification:  A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes.

Oxymoron:  A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect.

Onomatopoeia: Language that names something or an action by imitating the sound associated with it. 

Assonance:  The repetition Links to an external site. of similar vowel sounds takes place in two or more words in proximity to each other within a line of poetry or prose Links to an external site..

Consonance: The repetition Links to an external site. of the same consonant sounds in a line of text. 

Theme: The central, or deeper meaning of a written work.

Symbolism:  Something that stands for or suggests something else; it represents something beyond literal meaning. 

Anaphora: The repetition Links to an external site. of a word or phrase Links to an external site. at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases, or clauses. Links to an external site.

Juxtaposition:  Placing two ideas or concepts side by side to create dramatic or ironic contrast. 

Idiom: A non-literal phrase used to describe a distinct event. Generally accepted by society.

 

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