Literary Examples

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What is a simile?

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A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things using the words 'like' or 'as'. Example: 'Her hair was like snow.'

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What is a hyperbole?

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A hyperbole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally. Example: 'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.'

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What is a metaphor?

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A metaphor is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'. Example: 'Juliet is the sun.'

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What is an oxymoron?

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An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Example: 'Jumbo shrimp.'

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What is anaphora?

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Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Example: 'I have a dream' in Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech.

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What is personification?

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Personification is a figure of speech where human qualities are attributed to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract concepts. Example: 'The wind whispered through the trees.'

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What is alliteration?

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Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Example: 'She sells sea shells by the sea shore.'

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What is onomatopoeia?

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Onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound it describes. Example: 'buzz', 'hiss', 'clang'.

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What is a pun?

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A pun is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term or similarity in sound for humorous or rhetorical effect. Example: 'Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.'

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What is imagery in literature?

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Imagery is the use of descriptive language to create vivid mental pictures for the reader. Example: 'The golden sun set behind the purple mountains.'