FIGURE OF SPEECH

By Chessart

Given below are 15 different figures of speech. Please identify identify which type of figure of speech it is from the 4 choices given. Each figure of speech will only be used once as a correct answer.


1. 'Out in the porch's sagging floor, Leaves got up in a coil and hissed, Blindly struck at my knee and missed.'

    simile

    hyperbole

    irony

    metaphor

2. George Bush talked during his campaign about 'compassionate conservatism', which to many liberals sounds like a(n) ___________________.

    oxymoron

    euphemism

    synecdoche

    apostrophe

3. 'Necessity is the mother of invention.'

    litotes

    personification

    oxymoron

    paradox

4. 'The poor people of Ireland should rid themselves of poverty by selling their children to the rich to eat.'

    paradox

    neologism

    logorrhea

    irony

5. The phrases 'the humming bee', 'the cackling hen', and 'the buzzing saw' are examples of ________________.

    spoonerisms

    personification

    onomatopoeia

    metonymy

6. 'How many times have I told you to clean your room?'

    rhetorical question

    oxymoron

    hyperbole

    eponymy

7. 'To err is human, to forgive divine.'

    simile

    irony

    litotes

    antithesis

8. 'My uncle passed away in 1970.'

    exclamation

    euphemism

    apostrophe

    tautology

9. 'When Detroit increased auto production recently, Wall Street applauded and the White House took credit.'

    simile

    eponymy

    metonymy

    sesquipedalian

10. 'My rancher uncle bought 50 head of cattle last week.'

    oxymoron

    personification

    synecdoche

    euphemism

11. 'My son's teacher made it clear that cheating on tests was no laughing matter.'

    synecdoche

    irony

    onomatopoeia

    litotes

12. 'Hail divinest Melancholy, whose saintly visage is too bright to hit the sense of human sight.'

    apostrophe

    climax

    anticlimax

    euphemism

13. 'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!'

    conceit

    metaphor

    hyperbole

    metonymy

14. 'Christianity shone like a beacon in the black night of paganism.'

    conceit

    simile

    litotes

    climax

15. In Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis are buried President Benjamin Harrison, 3 Vice-Presidents, 15 Senators and Governors, and John Dillinger.'

    climax

    anticlimax

    conceit

    metaphor