Figurative Language Terms

a comparison of two things using the words “like” or “as” 

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Irony
• Oxymoron

giving human qualities to animals or inanimate objects

• Simile
• Irony
• Personification
• Oxymoron

a phrase that has two opposite words

• Simile
• Irony
• Personification
• Oxymoron

an extreme exaggeration

• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Pun
• Oxymoron

the opposite of what is meant (situational, verbal, dramatic)

• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Pun
• Oxymoron

a comparison of two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as”

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Pun
• Alliteration

a phrase that means something different than its literal meaning

• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Pun
• Alliteration

repetition of the same initial consonant letter or sounds

• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Onomatopoeia
• Alliteration

a word that imitates the sound that it represents

• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Onomatopoeia
• Alliteration

a “humorous” substitution of words that sound alike but are different in meaning

• Idiom
• Pun
• Onomatopoeia
• Alliteration