Figurative Language - Scavenger Hunt

List of Figurative Language:Pronunciation; Definition, and Example

List examples of figurative language from songs, poems, or the novel S. Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

Simile (SIH-muh-lee): a comparison between two or more things using the words like or as.

Example: "I move fast like a cheetah on the Serengeti."

Metaphor (MET-uh-for): a comparison between two or more things that doesn't use the words likeor as.

Example: "You are an ant, while I'm the lion." I was lost in a sea of nameless faces. John’s  answer to the problem was just a Band-Aid, not a solution.

Alliteration (uh-LIT-er-AY-shuhn): a phrase with a string of words all beginning with the same sound.

Example: "Five freaky females finding sales at retail."

Hyperbole (hie-PER-buh-lee): an exaggeration.

Example: "I fought a million rappers in an afternoon in June."

Oxymoron (ox·y·mo·ra) a combination of contradictory or incompatible words; 

Example: “as cruel kindness”; all alone; a just war; accurate estimate; awfully pretty; a fine mess

Personification, (per-son-if-ih-KAY-shon): giving an animal or object human-like characteristics.

Example: "Alright, the sky misses the sun at night."

Paradox (PARE-uh-docks): a statement that seems untrue, that seems to contradict itself.

Example: "The poorest man is the richest, and the rich are poor." ; "I can resist anything but temptation."-Oscar Wilde

Symbol (SIM-bull): something that stands for something else (often something more abstract).

Example: In Tupac Shakur's song Me and My Girlfriend, the "girlfriend" referenced is actually his gun.; Life is a roller-coaster; time is money

Assonance (ASS-uh-nince): the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyme.

Example: "Hear the mellow wedding bells." - Edgar Allen Poe"

Onomatopoeia (ON-uh-maht-uh-PEE-uh): a word that imitates the sound it is describing.

Example: "Out of reach, I pull out with a screech."

Apostrophe (uh-POS-troh-fee): a figure of speech that addresses (talks to) a dead or nonpresent person, or an object.

Example: "O, King Vitamin cereal, you blow my mind!"

Imagery (IM-aj-ree): a very general term that encompasses nearly any description of something that conjures an image, sound, taste, smell or feeling to mind. In other words a literal or concrete representation of a sensory experience or of an object that can be known by one or more senses.

Example: "Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" - T.S. Eliot

Metonymy (met-TON-im-ee): a figure of speech that replaces the literal thing with a more vivid, but closely related thing or idea.

Example: Instead of saying "give me your attention," you could say "give me your ear."

Understatement (UHN-der-stayt-ment): the opposite of hyperbole, an understatement makes something that is a big deal seem not very important. It's often used for humor.

Example: "The boat had been ripped apart by the storm and now a dozen hungry sharks began circling the captain. 'This isn't great,' he told his wife."