1. Figurative Language in Literature
Language that goes beyond the literal meaning to create a special image in our minds or a dramatic effect

2. Simile
A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as.
Example:
"Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." (Carl Sandburg)

3. Metaphor
A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. Doesn’t use like or as to make the comparison.
Example: This class is a three-ring circus

4. Personification
Figurative language that gives animals and inanimate objects human characteristics.
Example:
The lake was left shivering by the touch of morning wind.

5. Imagery
Descriptive language that is used to appeal to the five senses in order to create vivid mental images for the reader.
Example:
He could hear the footsteps of doom nearing.

6. Idiom
An expression that, taken literally, means something other than it does figuratively.
Example:
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

7. Hyperbole
An exaggeration or overstatement used for effect. Such statements are not literally true.
Example:
I am so hungry that I could eat a horse.

8. Alliteration
Repeated consonant or vowel sounds at the beginning of words. Alliteration is used to create mood or emphasis
Example:
lady lounges lazily
the snake slithered slowly across the slick cement.

9. Assonance Repeating identical or similar vowel sounds in nearby words
Example:
"Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage, against the dying of the light." (Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night")

10. Cliche
A phrase or expression which has lost its effectiveness through overuse
Example:
It was a white as snow.
What goes around comes around.

11. Connotation
is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word.
Example:
You may live in a house but I live in a home.

12. Consonance
the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in succession
Example:
pitter patter
all mammals named Sam are clammy.

13. Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents. Example:
Hiss
Sizzle
Splash

14. Euphemism
The substitution of an inoffensive term (such as "passed away") for one considered offensively explicit ("died").

15. Pun