Figures of Speech Based on Contrast Examples - Figures of Speech based on
contrast can be divided into seven. They are Antithesis, Epigram, Paradox,
Oxymoron, Irony, Euphemism, and Litotes.
Antithesis
Antithesis is a figure in
which a striking opposition of contrast of words or feelings is made in the
same sentence.
Examples of Antithesis:
-Man proposes, God disposes.
-Men must work and women must
weep.
Epigram
Epigram is a brief pointed
saying often in poetical from, frequently introducing antithetical ideas which
excite surprise and arrrest attention.
Examples of Epigram:
-Familiraty breeds contempt.
-A gift is never little.
Paradox
Paradox is a figure of speech
in which a truth is conveyed under the form of an apparent absurdity of
contradiction.
Exampes of Paradox:
-The child is father of the
man.
-More haste, less speed.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a figure by which
two contradictory qualities are predicted at once of the same thing. (An
adjective is added to a word of quite a contrary meaning)
Examples of Oxymoron:
-She accepted it as the kind
cruelty of the surgeon’s knife.
-He is an honorable villain.
Irony
Irony is the use of words, the
natural meaning of which is just the opposite of what is intended to be
expressed.
Examples of Irony:
-What a fine friend to forsake
others in trouble.
-i fear I wrong the honourable
men whose actions have put me into trouble.
Euphemism
Euphemism is a figure by means
of which we speak in pleasing or favourable terms of an unpleasant or bad
thing.
Examples of Euphemism:
-He has gone to an unreturned
land.
-He was a gentleman of the
roads.
Litotes
Litotes is the use of a
negative to express a strong affirmative of the opposite kind.
Examples of Litotes:
-He was not all unhappy.
-She is not the ugly duckling of her family.