Q 01/05

Which figure of speech, from Greek words for 'sharp' and 'dull', covers phrases like 'jumbo shrimp' and 'bittersweet'?

A) Tautology

B) Palindrome

C) Oxymoron

D) Pleonasm

Answer · why

C) Oxymoron

Oxymoron is itself an example of one: its Greek halves pair 'sharp' with 'dull' or 'foolish'. Romeo reels off about a dozen in a single speech in Shak...

Q 02/05

The tongue twister about Peter Piper picking a peck of pickled peppers is a familiar example of which sound device?

A) Alliteration

B) Sibilance

C) Enjambment

D) Internal rhyme

Answer · why

A) Alliteration

Alliteration got its name in the 15th century from the Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano, who built it on the Latin littera, 'letter of the alphabet'....

Q 03/05

Robert Burns sings that his love is 'like a red, red rose' in a Scots song, using which figure of speech?

A) Sarcasm

B) Simile

C) Epigram

D) Proverb

Answer · why

B) Simile

Simile comes from the Latin word similis, meaning 'like'. Burns based the 1794 song on traditional sources, and it is often published as a poem.

Q 04/05

Jaques declares in Shakespeare's As You Like It that all the world is a stage, a famous example of which device?

A) Innuendo

B) Tautology

C) Understatement

D) Metaphor

Answer · why

D) Metaphor

Metaphor is itself a metaphor: the word comes from a Greek term for 'transference', as if a meaning were being carried over from one thing to another.

Q 05/05

Tall tales about the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan rely on which figure of speech, from Greek for 'throw beyond'?

A) Paraphrase

B) Hyperbole

C) Innuendo

D) Ellipsis

Answer · why

B) Hyperbole

Hyperbole has a modern champion in the word 'literally': dictionaries now record its use as an intensifier in statements that are not literally true.