1. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

2. SIMILE A comparison of two things using “like, as than,” or “resembles.” She is as beautiful as a sunrise. He swims like a fish.

3. METAPHOR A direct comparison of two unlike things The moon is a silver apple. “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.”- William Shakespeare

4. EXTENDED METAPHOR A metaphor that goes several lines or possibly the entire length of a work. The Toaster A silver-scaled Dragon with jaws flaming red Sits at my elbow and toasts my bread. I hand him fat slices, and then, one by one, He hands them back when he sees they are done.

5. IMPLIED METAPHOR The comparison is hinted at, but not clearly stated. “The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it.” from The Pearl, by John Steinbeck

6. Hyperbole Exaggeration often used for emphasis. “My backpack weighs a ton.” “It took forever to get to the beach.” “I could eat a cow!”

7. Understatement Basically the opposite of hyperbole. Often it is ironic. Calling a FAST moving person “Slowpoke” "Jen had stolen his watch, put a dent in his car, and kept him from spending time with his buddies. Needless to say, Jack had acquired a less than favorable opinion of his ex-girlfriend."

8. Euphemism Substitution of an inoffensive term (such as "passed away") for one considered offensively explicit ("died"). Ground beef for ground flesh of dead cow pre-owned for used or second-hand “It's just a flesh wound." ( Black Knight, after having both of his arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail )

9. PERSONIFICATION An animal given human-like qualities or an object given life-like qualities. from “Ninki” by Shirley Jackson “Ninki was by this time irritated beyond belief by the general air of incompetence exhibited in the kitchen, and she went into the living room and got Shax, who is extraordinarily lazy and never catches his own chipmunks, but who is, at least, a cat, and preferable, Ninki saw clearly, to a man with a gun. The wind called out to me from across the prairie.

10. ALLITERATION Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

11. ONOMATOPOEIA Words that imitate the sound they are naming BUZZ OR sounds that imitate another sound “The silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain...”

12. Idiom An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually says. It’s raining cats and dogs. That team got toasted!