Acronym: a word formed from the first letter or first
few letters of each word in a phrase or title and sometimes pronounced as a
word. NASA is pronounced as a word and
is the acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. FBI is
pronounced by its letters and is an acronym for Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Alliteration: A group of words that all begin with the same sound.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pepper pickles.
Antonym:
a word with a meaning that is opposite to the meaning of another word. Love is
the antonym of hate. Happy is the antonym of sad.
Euphemism: a milder word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
Spinning tales can be an euphemism for lying.
Homonyms: a word that is said or spelled the same way as another word but has a different meaning.
Write, right, and rite are homonyms.
Duck (noun) and duck (verb) are homonyms.
Metaphor:
a word or phrase that is used as a symbol to make a direct comparison between
two people, animals, things, places, or a combination of any two of these. A
metaphor makes a stronger statement than a simile does by stating something
“is” something else.
The
king is a dragon today.
The
raindrops were arrows.
Oxymoron: A phrase composed of two words with contradictory meanings.
Jumbo shrimp. Act naturally. Original copy.
Pun: A play on words that relies on a word’s having more than one meaning or sounding like another word.
A good pun has its own reword.
Horses are stable animals.
Simile:
a figure of speech in which two un-similar things or people are compared by
using “like” or “as” to connect the comparison.
The
knight was as brave as a panther.
The
dragon danced like a feather in the wind.
Synonyms:
a word that has the same meaning as another word.
Big,
large, huge, and giant are synonyms.
Small,
miniature, little, and tiny are synonyms.
Personification: a figure of speech in which a something
non-human is given a human quality. The non-human objects are portrayed in such
a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.
The
unicorn sang in triumph.
Flowers
danced in the breeze.
Visit my author website for information about my multi-award winning The Pen Pieyu Adventures series, dragon books for children, free pdf coloring pages, and a grade 4 teacher's lesson plan: http://www.dragonsbook.com
