AP Language and Composition Glossary of Rhetorical Devices

any language that appeals to the reader’s five senses. If it helps the to imagine what something looks, tastes, smells, sounds, or feels like, it’s this!

• mood

• imagery

• theme

• metaphor

Words that show sound: Snap! Crackle! Pop!

• alliteration

• onomatopoeia

• rhyme

• repeition

Dead on her feet, Marla collapsed onto the worn bus seat, glad her 24 hour shift was finally over.

• literal language

• figurative language

a comparison of two unlike things using like, as, than, or resembles

• simile 

• metaphor

• personification

• onomatopoeia

giving human characteristics to a nonhuman subject

• simile

• alliteration

• metaphor

• personification

Which figurative device is being used in the following sentence? I'm so hungry I could eat a great white shark!

• Simile

• Idiom

• Personification

• Hyperbole

Which term fits this definition? A comparison between two unlike things with "like" or "as."

• Metaphor

• Idiom

• Simile

• Hyperbole

Which sound device is being used in this line?

Softly and slowly the snowflakes fell

• Metaphor

• Rhyme

• Alliteration

• Idiom

What is rhetoric?

• a toddler throwing a tantrum

• a promposal

• a sales associate upselling products

• the art of persuasion

• all of the above

"All the world is a stage." is what type of figurative language?

• cliche

• hyperbole

• metaphor

• simile