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stylistic device
Sign in to saveAlso known as persuasive device, stylistic element, rhetorical device
technique used to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling to a literal message, including assonance, consonance and alliteration
A stylistic device is a technique writers and speakers use to add extra layers of meaning, emotion, or effect to their basic message—such as through repetition of sounds like assonance, consonance, and alliteration. It matters because these devices make language more engaging and memorable, helping communicate ideas in ways that go beyond just the literal words.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- rhetorical device
- Image
- Walter Crane 001.jpg
- Said to be same as
- figure of speech
Show 4 more facts
- model item
- alliteration
- studied by
- rhetoric
- facet of
- rhetoric
- topic's main category
- Category:Figures of speech
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~32 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A literary device, literary technique, figure of speech, rhetorical device, stylistic device, or trope is any deliberate strategy of using language that a writer or speaker employs to more effectively achieve some purpose. This purpose may be: to focus or guide the audience's attention, to make the language or its content memorable, or to evoke a particular emotional, rational, aesthetic, or other response. The many names (or synonyms) for this concept may carry slightly distinct meanings in technical scholarly usage.
Literary devices are classifiable into various sub-categories, such as narrative devices, poetic devices, argumentative devices, linguistic schemes or templates, or other techniques distinct to certain forms of language. They can be difficult to cleanly classify, however, as many are common across multiple such forms and can intersect under various categories, such as figurative (non-literal) devices.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “stylistic device” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.