Editing Figure of speech (section)

== Examples ==
[[File:Jamaica her own idea.png|thumb|upright=1.25|The cartoon is a [[pun]] on the word ''Jamaica'', whose pronunciation [dʒəˈmeɪkə] is a homonym to the clipped form of "Did you make her?"]]
Figures of speech come in many varieties.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Forest of Rhetoric |url=http://rhetoric.byu.edu/ |website=Silva Rhetoricae |publisher=Brigham Young}}</ref> The aim is to use the language imaginatively to accentuate the effect of what is being said. A few examples follow:

* "Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran" is an example of [[alliteration]], where the consonant ''r'' is used repeatedly. "Sister Suzy‘s sewing socks for soldiers" is a particular form of alliteration called [[sibilance]], repeating an ''s'' sound. Both are commonly used in poetry.

* "She would run up the stairs and then a new set of curtains" is a variety of [[Zeugma and syllepsis|zeugma]] called a [[syllepsis]]. ''Run up'' can refer either to a quick ascent or to manufacture. The effect is enhanced by the momentary suggestion, through a [[pun]], that she might be climbing the curtains. The [[ellipsis (linguistics)|ellipsis]] or omission of the second use of the verb makes the reader think harder about what is being said.
* "Painful pride" is an [[oxymoron]], where two contradictory ideas are placed in the same sentence.
* "I had butterflies in my stomach" is a [[metaphor]], referring to a nervous feeling as if there were flying insects in one's stomach.
:To say "it was like having some butterflies in my stomach" is a [[simile]], because it uses the word ''like'', which a metaphor does not.
:To say "It was like having a butterfly farm in my stomach", "It felt like a butterfly farm in my stomach", or "I was so nervous that I had a butterfly farm in my stomach" could be a [[hyperbole]], because it is exaggerated.
*"That filthy place was really dirty" is an example of [[Tautology (grammar)|tautology]], as there are the two words ('filthy' and 'dirty') having almost the same meaning and are repeated so as to make the text more emphatic.
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* Ecphonesis
* Elegant variation
* Emphasis
* Exclamatio
* Paregmenon
* Sarcasm
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