Figures of Speech Based on Contrast Examples

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.