1. Rhetorical Devices The Dictionary of Rhetoric
Yes, you should take really good Cornell Notes.
AP Language & Composition
Rhetorical Devices The Dictionary of Rhetoric

2. Allegory A story or tale that functions as an extended metaphor.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave from The Republic functions literally as a tale of a cave with prisoners and one who escapes, only to be ignored when he returns; and as a metaphor for humankind’s “nature in it’s education and it’s want of education”.
The film The Matrix is much like the famous cave allegory– how?

3. Alliteration Recurrence of initial consonant sounds.
Think of tongue twisters that rely on the first letter:
Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers.
She sells sea shells by the sea shore.
Children’s books use this a lot– why do you think?
I double-dare you! I double-dog dare you!
The best laid plans of mice and men…
Ever play tic-tac-toe?

4. Anadiplosis
Repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next
“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda, Star Wars
"They call for you: The general who became a slave; the slave who became a gladiator; the gladiator who defied an Emperor. Striking story." —Commodus, Gladiator

5. Analogy
 Compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one.
Your short-term memory is like the RAM on a computer: it records the information in front of you right now. Some of what you experience seems to evaporate--like words that go missing when you turn off your computer without hitting SAVE.

6. Anaphora
is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has learned?
Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they would find at the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland.

7. ANTIMETABOLE
repetition of words in consecutive clauses but in an inverted or transposed order. For example,
“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.”

8. Antithesis
establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure.
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong
Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise.

9. Aphorism
denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic, or concise, and easily memorable form
Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana
Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see – Mark Twain
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

10. Apostrophe
Addressing directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent.
Dead give-away is the “O”
“O Captain, My Captain,” by Walt Whitman for Abraham Lincoln
Can also function as naming who’s being addressed:
But all such reasons notwithstanding, dear reader, does not the cost in lives persuade you by itself that we must do something immediately about the situation?

11. Apposition
a noun or noun substitute placed next to (in apposition to) another noun to be described or defined by the appositive
WOW that sounds like a lot of grammar! (Its so EZ!)
Henry Jameson, the boss of the operation, always wore a red baseball cap.
A notorious annual feast, the picnic was well attended.

12. Assonance
Similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants
Frequently used in modern rap music.
Their pens and pads I snatch 'cause I've had it / I'm not an addict, fiending for static / I see their tape recorder and I grab it / No, you can't have it back, silly rabbit". – Public Enemy, “Don’t Believe the Hype”

13. asyndeton Omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.
Gives a hurried or rushed effect, but can also indicate that the items are of equal importance.
On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame.
He was a winner, a hero.

14. chiasmus
Could be called "reverse parallelism," since the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order.
Parallel (A B A B):
He knowingly lied and we blindly followed.
(Subj., adv., verb, conj., subj., adv., verb.)
Inverting into chiasmus (A B B A) :
"He knowingly lied and we followed blindly"
(Subj., adv., verb, conj. (cross), subj., verb, adv.)
Antimetabole examples resemble chiasmus examples as they are marked by the inversion of structure. In chiasmus, however, the words and phrases are not repeated.

15. Climax
consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis
Miss America was not only eager to serve her community, but her state, country, and the world.

16. Colloquialism
Colloquialisms or colloquial language is considered to be characteristic of, or only appropriate for casual, ordinary, familiar, or informal conversation rather than formal speech or writing.
Dictionary abbreviation colloq.
Some examples:
Coke vs. Soda vs. Pop
Y’all, ain’t, gonna
Entire aphorisms like “More than one way to skin a cat.”

17. Consonance
A stylistic device, most commonly used in poetry and songs, characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession.
“Pitter patter”
“All mammals named Sam are clammy.”
How is this different from alliteration?

18. Didactic A tone which intends to educate or moralize.
Hey! This is a tone word, not really a device…
…but a didactic tone is incredibly powerful, and hence deserves to be mentioned apart from other “tone words” as a rhetorical device.
How could you learn from someone who doesn’t sound confident in what she is saying? A didactic tone affects ethos, or one’s character (or credibility, if you will).

19. Enumeration
Detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly
I love her eyes, her hair, her nose, her cheeks, her lips [etc.].
When the new highway opened, more than just the motels and restaurants prospered. The stores noted a substantial increase in sales, more people began moving to town, a new dairy farm was started, the old Main Street Theater doubled its showings and put up a new building

20. epistrophe
The counterpart to anaphora, because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are subdued. --Wilson
You will find reading nightly helpful in passing this course, writing essays desirable for passing this course, and studying hours on end essential to passing this course.

21. Euphemism
Substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener.
Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, like code-names or jokes.
A few fries short of a Happy Meal - stupid
laid off, downsized - fired

22. Epigram A brief, clever, and usually memorable statement.
Often poetic, though there are a few non-poetic epigrams- these tend to be paradoxical or with a clever twist at the end.
“Little strokes, Fell great oaks.” - Benjamin Franklin
“I can resist everything except temptation” – Oscar Wilde

23. epithet
An adjective or adjective phrase appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by naming a key or important characteristic of the subject, as in "laughing happiness," "sneering contempt," "untroubled sleep," "peaceful dawn," and "life-giving water."

24. Fable
A succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are personified or anthropomorphized, and that illustrates a moral lesson, which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.
A didactic mode of literature, think of Aesop’s fables, like Tortoise and the Hare, or even The Lion King, or Orwell’s Animal Farm.

25. hyperbole Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect.
There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy.
I said "rare," not "raw." I've seen cows hurt worse than this get up and get well.
Hyperbole is the most overused and overdone rhetorical figure in the whole world (and that is no hyperbole!)

26. imagery Language that evokes a sensory experience.
Often in forms of metaphors and similes.
I am as bold as a lion.
Her hair is like the sea.
His breath was on fire.
Her eyes are endless pools of beauty.
The sky was a million sapphires, sparkling against the desert silhouettes.

27. irony
Incongruity between what is expressed and what is intended, between an understanding or expectation of reality and what actually happens; the literal truth is in direct discordance to the perceived truth.
Verbal Irony – Sarcasm
Dramatic Irony – The audience knows!
Tragic Irony – Romeo and Juliet
Situational Irony
Cosmic Irony/Irony of Fate – O. Henry Gift of the Magi
Historical Irony – time plays a role in Cosmic Irony

28. Juxtaposition
Side by side comparison for certain effect- similar to oxymoron, but can be larger to encompass the structure of an argument.
Essays can juxtapose topics of discussion through different topic paragraphs, like cause & effect and argument essays.
All’s fair in love and war. Love and war are opposites, and yet this proverb shows that they have one thing in common which is that anything goes. This juxtaposition demonstrates that there is more alike between the concepts of love and war than one might originally think.

29. Lampoon
Also known as Parody – see that definition

30. Litotes
A particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the word which otherwise would be used.
Litotes either retains the effect of understatement, or becomes an intensifying expression.
Heat waves are not rare in the summer.
Hitting that telephone pole certainly didn't do your car any good.
He who examines his own self will not long remain ignorant of his failings.

31. metaphor Comparison of two objects without using like or as.
Write your own example. You can do this. 

32. Metanoia (correctio)
Qualifies a statement by recalling it (or part of it) and expressing it in a better, milder, or stronger way. A negative is often used to do the recalling.
Fido was the friendliest of all St. Bernards, nay of all dogs.
These new textbooks will genuinely improve the lives of our children, or rather the children of the whole district.

33. metonymy
is another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two), in which the thing chosen for the metaphorical image is closely associated with (but not an actual part of) the subject with which it is to be compared.
The orders came from the White House.
You can’t fight city hall!
Metonymy has the effect of creating concrete and vivid images in place of generalities

34. onomatopoeia
Use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound of the word it describes.
Written language has an aural quality, even unspoken writing has a sound to it:
Snap! Pop! Crackle! Bang! Buzz! Moo! Splash!
No one talks in these factories. Everyone is too busy. The only sounds are the snip, snip of scissors and the hum of the sewing machines.

35. Oxymoron
A paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adj.-noun or adv.-adj. relationship, and is used for effect, complexity, emphasis, or wit.
I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves and their art...” Jonathan Swift
Senator Rosebud calls this a useless plan; if so, it is the most helpful useless plan we have ever enacted.

36. parable
A brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. 
Feature human characters, unlike fables, which feature non-human characters.
Parables - Prodigal Son
Many folktales, and some fairy tales are parables, as long as they have some kind of lesson

37. pARADOX
Statement or statements that are at first true, and lead to contradiction, or untrue and lead to a truth or dual-truth.
“I know one thing: that I know nothing.” -
Socrates (via Plato)
An oxymoron is a short phrase that contradicts itself, while a paradox is a larger sentence, situation or idea that is an apparent contradiction

38. Parallelism
Recurrent syntactical similarity across several parts of a sentence or several sentences.
show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance.
adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” —Dalai Lama
The second part flies in the face of an assumption that is, for most of us, extremely deep-rooted: my individual welfare is best served if I primarily focus on my interests.

39. parenthesis
A word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an aside in the middle of another sentence.
Every time I try to think of a good rhetorical example, I rack my brains but--you guessed it--nothing happens.
You could actually use parentheses (where do you think it got it’s name?) as part of this rhetorical device!

40. parody
A work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation, also known as lampoons or spoofs.

41. ParonomASIA
Pun, or a play on words that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect.
My geography teacher has a globe on her desk; it means the world to her.
The pun is mightier than the word. (Pen is mightier than the sword)

42. persona
The “second self” created by the author in a piece of written work.
Common in narrative essays and novels, both fiction and non-fiction.

43. Personification
Metaphorically represents an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes -of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on.
Ideas and abstractions can also be personified.
Write your own sentence with a personified animal, inanimate object, idea or abstraction.
The city never sleeps.

44. polysyndeton
The use of conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted.
The rhetorical effect of polysyndeton, however, often shares with that of asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up.
They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked.

45. Rhetorical question
A question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply.
Is justice then to be considered merely a word? Or is it whatever results from the bartering between attorneys?
Are you really as dense as you seem, Marsha?

46. satire
Individual or human vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, burlesque, derision, irony or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement.

47. simile A comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”
Write your own example! This is EZ MODE!

48. synechdoche PARTS   WHOLE
Farmer Jones has two hundred head of cattle and three hired hands.
If I had some wheels, I'd put on my best threads and ask for Jane's hand in marriage.
The army included two hundred horse and three hundred foot.
It’s sure hard to earn a dollar these days.

49. understatement
Deliberately expresses an idea as less important than it actually is, either for ironic emphasis or for politeness and tact.
You know I would be a little disappointed if you were to be hit by a drunk driver at two a.m., so I hope you will be home early.

50. zeugma
Joining one or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun.
Shows the relationship between ideas and actions more clearly.
Fred excelled at sports; Harvey at eating; Mike with girls.
You held your breath and the door for me.
His boat and his dreams sank.
The emotions of a person losing a lifelong dream as a sailor are more pronounced in this sentence than in a construction such as this: The man's boat sank. He realized his dreams were slipping away.

51. YAY ALL DONE!!! Now you have a spiffy personal dictionary!
Now study it! It will be your new best friend!!!
That’s You!