1. alliteration: repetition of the same letter at beginning of words or syllables:
Marcus me momordit.
2. anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis:
non feram, non sinam, non patiar
3. anastrophe: inversion of usual word order (e.g., preposition after the word it
governs)
te propter vivo (instead of the expected propter te vivo)
4. aposiopesis: breaking off in the middle of a sentence
quem ego.... sed non possum pergere. ("Whom I.... But I cannot go on.")
5. apostrophe: addressing a person who is not present
O maiores, quid diceretis de hac re? ("Oh ancestors, what would you say about this
matter?")
6. asyndeton: omission of conjunctions
videt, sentit, scit
7. chiasmus: "abba" arrangement of words
magnas urbes oppida parva (adjective, noun, noun, adjective)
8. ellipsis: omission of words
Dixit me inventum. ("He said I had been found." esse is missing).
9. hendiadys: use of two nouns together to express a noun modified by an adjective
luctus et labor (meaning "grievous toil")
10. hyperbole: exaggeration
Catilina est mons vitiorum. ("Catiline is a mountain of vices.")
11. hysteron proteron: placing first what the reader might expect to come last
mortuus est et hostem inruit ("He died and he rushed against the enemy")
12. litotes: use of a negative to express a strong positive
Haud stultus erat Cicero. ("Cicero was very intelligent").
13. metaphor: expression of meaning through an image
Horatius est lux litterarum Latinarum. ("Horace is the light of Latin
literature.")
14. metonymy: substitution of one word for another that it suggests
Neptunus me terret (to mean, "the sea frightens me").
15. onomatopoeia: use of words that sound like their meaning
Murmurant multi (the "m"’s produce the sound of murmuring).
16. oxymoron: use of an apparent contradiction
parvum monstrum
17. personification: attribution of human characteristics to something not human
Ipsa saxa dolent. ("The rocks themselves grieve")
18. pleonasm: use of superfluous words
Oculis me videt. ("She sees me with her eyes.")
19. polysyndeton: use of many conjunctions
et videt et sentit et scit
20. prolepsis (anticipation): use of a word sooner than it would logically appear
submersis obruit puppis ("he overwhelms the sunken ships").
21. simile: comparison using a word like sicut, similis,
or velut.
Volat sicut avis. ("He flies like a bird.")
22. synecdoche: use of part to express a whole
Prora in portam navigavit. ("The ship sailed into the harbor." prora
[prow] for navis [ship]).
23. tmesis: the separation of a compound word into two parts
saxo cere comminuit brum (for saxo cerebrum comminuit; "He smashed his
brain with a rock.").
24. tricolon crescens: combination of three elements, increasing in size
non ferar, non patiar, non tolerabo
25. zeugma: use of one word in two different senses simultaneously
Aeneas tulit dolorem et patrem Troia. (Aeneas carried grief and his father from Troy).
