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  2. English understatement - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_understatement

    One author has described this "stylistic mannerism" to be inherited from "an earlier, possibly common-Germanic, poetic tradition"; [3] he notes that understatement is also found in mediaeval German poetry and Old Norse poetry. Such understatement may have the effect of mocking irony, humour, emphasis, and the tempering of an (otherwise rather ...

  3. Understatement - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understatement

    Understatement is an expression of lesser strength than what the speaker or writer actually means or than what is normally expected. It is the opposite of embellishment or exaggeration, and is used for emphasis, irony, hedging, or humor. A particular form of understatement using negative syntax is called litotes.

  4. Glossary of literary terms - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_literary_terms

    Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...

  5. Glossary of poetry terms - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_poetry_terms

    Acrostic: a poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, name, or phrase when read vertically. Example: “A Boat beneath a Sunny Sky” by Lewis Carroll. Concrete (aka pattern): a written poem or verse whose lines are arranged as a shape/visual image, usually of the topic. Slam; Sound; Spoken-word; Verbless poetry: a poem ...

  6. List of forms of word play - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_forms_of_word_play

    Palindrome: a word or phrase that reads the same in either direction; Pangram: a sentence which uses every letter of the alphabet at least once; Tautogram: a phrase or sentence in which every word starts with the same letter; Caesar shift: moving all the letters in a word or sentence some fixed number of positions down the alphabet

  7. Glossary of rhetorical terms - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms

    Paraprosdokian – a sentence in which the latter half takes an unexpected turn. Parataxis – using juxtaposition of short, simple sentences to connect ideas, as opposed to explicit conjunction. Parenthesis – an explanatory or qualifying word, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage that is not essential to the literal meaning.

  8. Litotes - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litotes

    In rhetoric, litotes (/ l aɪ ˈ t oʊ t iː z, ˈ l aɪ t ə t iː z /, US: / ˈ l ɪ t ə t iː z /), [1] also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, often incorporating double negatives for effect.

  9. Stylistic device - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistic_device

    In the first place, a text is either a novel, a drama, a poem, or some other "form" of literature. However, this term can also refer to the length of lines, stanzas, or cantos in poems, as well as sentences, paragraphs, or chapters in prose. Furthermore, such visible structures as dialogue versus narration are also considered part of formal ...