Les principales. By Richard Nordquist Updated September 22, 2015.
A figure of speech is a rhetorical device that achieves a special effect by using words in distinctive ways. Though there are hundreds of figures of speech (many of them included in our Tool Kit for Rhetorical Analysis), here we'll focus on just 20 of the most common figures. You will probably remember many of these terms from your English classes. Figure of speech. A figure of speech is the use of a word or a phrase, which transcends its literal interpretation.
It can be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, or synecdoche. Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation.
A figure of speech is sometimes called a rhetorical figure or a locution.