Figure of Speech

A figure of speech is a use of a word that diverges from its normal meaning,[citation needed] or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it such as a metaphor, simile, or personification.[citation needed] Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. A figure of speech is sometimes called a rhetoric or a locution.
Not all theories of meaning have a concept of "literal language" (see literal and figurative language). Under theories that do not, figure of speech is not an entirely coherent concept.
Rhetoric originated as the study of the ways in which a source text can be transformed to suit the goals of the person reusing the material. For this goal, classical rhetoric detected four fundamental operations[1] that can be used to transform a sentence or a larger portion of a text. They are: expansion, abridgement, switching, transferring.
Alliteration
Repetition of an initial consonant sound.

Anaphora
Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

Apostrophe
Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.

Assonance
Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.

Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

Euphemism
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

Hyperbole
An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

Irony
The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted