Definition

Noun: A figure of speech is a word or phrase used in a non-literal, imaginative, or metaphorical way to create a specific effect, such as emphasis, clarity, or vividness in language. It deviates from the ordinary, literal meaning of words to convey a more complex idea or a striking image.

Usage

A figure of speech is used to add rhetorical force, beauty, or creativity to writing and speech. It is a fundamental tool in poetry, literature, rhetoric, and everyday expressive language.

Examples

• Metaphor is a common figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. (e.g., "Time is a thief.")
• The author's prose is rich with inventive figures of speech, like similes and personification.
• When she said she had "butterflies in her stomach," she was using a figure of speech to describe nervousness.

Advanced Usage

• To employ/use a figure of speech: To deliberately utilize a figurative expression.
  • The politician employed a powerful figure of speech to rally the crowd.
• As a figure of speech: Used to clarify that a statement is not meant literally.
  • "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse," he said as a figure of speech.

Variants and Related Words

• Figurative language (n): The broader category of language that uses figures of speech; non-literal language in general.
• Trope (n): A significant or recurring theme, motif, or figure of speech, often used in literary criticism.
• Rhetorical device (n): A technique a writer or speaker uses to persuade or convey meaning, which often includes figures of speech.

Synonyms

• Expression
• Idiom (specifically for a fixed, non-literal phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the individual words)
• Image
• Metaphorical expression

Related Phrases

• Turn of phrase: A particular or characteristic manner of expression, which may involve a figure of speech.
  • He has a clever turn of phrase.

Related Idioms

• To speak figuratively: To use language in a non-literal sense.
  • I'm speaking figuratively, of course; I don't actually mean the sky is falling.

Noun

1. language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense