FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Using words in an imaginative way to express ideas that are not literally true.

It is used for comparison, emphasis, and emotional effect.

idiom

• An expression that has a meaning different from the meaning of its individual words.

• EX: He let the cat out of the bag.

hyperbole

• Words which exaggerate for effect.

• Ex: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.

metaphor

• Unstated comparison of two things that are basically dissimilar but have qualities in common.

• Ex: My brother’s room is a pig sty.

simile

• Comparison between two unlike things using like or as.

• Ex: My brother’s room is like a pig pen.

oxymoron

• Combining contradictory terms for effect.

• Ex: Deafening silence

• Cruel kindness

onomatopoeia

• Use of words whose sounds echo their meanings, such as buzz, gargle, slurp.

• Ex: I pulled the strings our of my stalk. Z-Z-zip, Z-Z-Zip.

» Lensey Namioka

personification

• Giving human qualities to an animal, object, or idea.

• Ex: The flowers danced in the wind.