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Alliteration: The repetition of usually initial consonant
sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. —Mother Goose
Assonance: The repetition of vowels followed by different
consonants in two or more stressed syllables.
Example: And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride. —Edgar Allan Poe
Cliché: A phrase that has been overused or is commonplace.
Example: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. —American
Proverb
Hyperbole: Rhetorical exaggeration often used to emphasize
something, such as a feeling or reaction.
Example: I nearly died laughing.
Idiom: A combinations of words that has a different meaning
than the respective words themselves.
Example: Hold your horses.
Metaphor: A comparison made by referring one thing as another.
Example: No man is an island —John Donne
Onomatopoeia: Words which imitate the sound they refer to.
Example: Splat, bonks, crash, splatter, slash, pow, boom.
Personification: A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inanimate
objects are given human characteristics.
Example: The wind stood up and gave a shout. —James Stephens
Simile: A comparison of two unlike things, often, but not
always using “like” or “as.”
Example: My love is like a red, red rose. —Robert Burns
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