• Man proposes, God disposes.

• "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." Goethe

• "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice

• Many are called, but few are chosen.

• Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea.

• Examples

• Some examples of apostrophe are listed below:

• 1.

• "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times."

• Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1

• 2.

• "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so."

• John Donne, Holy Sonnet X

• 3.

• "Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again."

• Paul Simon, The Sounds of Silence

Assonance is a figure of speech that is found more often in verse than in prose. It refers to the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences.

Examples of Assonance

These are some examples:

• "the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" - The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

• "The crumbling thunder of seas" - Robert Louis Stevenson

• "That solitude which suits abstruser musings" - The Princess VII.203 by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Cataphora refers to a figure of speech where an earlier expression refers to or describes a forward expression. Cataphora is the opposite of anaphora, a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse.

Examples of cataphora

These are some examples:

• If you want them, there are cookies in the kitchen. (them is an instance of cataphora because it refers to cookies which hasn't been mentioned in the discourse prior to that point.)

• After he had received his orders, the soldier left the barracks. (he is also a cataphoric reference to the soldier which is mentioned later in the discourse)

Chiasmus is a figure of speech in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form. In other words, the clauses display inverted parallelism.

Examples:

These are examples of chiasmus:

• He knowingly led and we followed blindly

• Swift as an arrow flying, fleeing like a hare afraid

• 'Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.' Socrates (fifth century B.C.)

• Climax refers to a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance.

• Examples of climax

• These are some examples:

• 1.

• Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good; A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly; A flower that dies when first it gins to bud; A brittle glass that's broken presently: A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.

• Shakespear, The Passionate Pilgrim

• 2.

• "There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

• 1 Corinthians 13:13

• 3.

• This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

• Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream

Dysphemism is the use of a harsh, more offensive word instead of one considered less harsh. Dysphemism is often contrasted with euphemism. Dysphemisms are generally used to shock or offend.

Examples:

These are examples of dysphemism:

• Snail mail for postal mail,

• Cancer stick in reference to a cigarette.

• Egghead for genius.

• Worm food for dead.

• Pig for policeman.

• Bullshit for lies.

• Dead tree edition for the paper version of a publication that can be found online

• Fag for homosexual man.

Euphemism is used to express a mild, indirect, or vague term to substitute for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term. Euphemism is often contrasted with dysphemism. Some euphemisms intend to amuse, while others intend to give positive appearances to negative events or even mislead entirely.

Examples:

These are examples of euphemism:

• Going to the other side for death,

• Do it or come together in reference to a sexual act.

• Passed away for die.

• On the streets for homeless.

• Adult entertainment for pornography.

• Comfort woman for prostitute

• Between jobs for unemployed.

An epigram refers to a concise, witty, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The origin of the word epigram is Greek, from epigraphein (epi- + graphein to write)

Examples

Some examples of epigram are listed below:

• The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." (Tacitus)

• "I am not young enough to know everything." (Oscar Wilde)

• "Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing." (Oscar Wilde)

• "I can resist everything but temptation." - Oscar Wilde

• "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put and end to mankind." - John F. Kennedy

• "No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend." (Groucho Marx)

What is hyperbole?

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally. Hyperboles are exaggerations to create emphasis or effect.

Examples

Examples of hyperbole include:

• The bag weighed a ton.

• I was so hungry; I could eat a horse!

• She's older than the hills.

• I could sleep for a year; I was so tired.

• He's filthy rich. He's got tons of money.

• I've told you a million times to help with the housework.

Ellipsis (or elliptical construction ) is the omission of a word or words. It refers to constructions in which words are left out of a sentence but the sentence can still be understood.

Ellipsis helps us avoid a lot of redundancy. In fact there is a lot of redundancy in language and it can be surprising how much can be left out without losing much meaning, particularly when there are contextual clues as to the real meaning.

Examples

Some examples of ellipsis are listed below:

• Lacy can do something about the problem, but I don’t know what (she can do.)

• She can help with the housework; Nancy can (help with the housework), too.

• John can speak seven languages, but Ron can speak only two (languages.)

The words between parentheses can be omitted and the sentences can still be meaningful.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines incongruous or contradictory terms. The plural is oxymorons or oxymora.

Examples:

An oximoron can be made of an adjective and a noun:

• Dark light

• Deafening silence

• Living dead

• Open secret

• Virtual reality

Oximorons can also be a combination of a noun and a verb.