English Grade 10 – Poetry Devices Defined

Match the poetic device to the correct definition

1. Speaker
2. Simile
3. Hyperbole
4. Metaphor
5. Meiosis
6. Synaesthesia
7. Personification
8. Diction
9. Synecdoche
10. Paradox
author's intentional choice of words.
Intentional, extreme exaggeration used to create a strong emotional impact
intentionally understates something to make it seem less significant, smaller, or less severe
a figure of speech that directly compares two unrelated things by stating that one thing is another
seemingly self-contradictory statement or scenario that, upon closer examination, reveals a deeper, hidden truth
non-human entities—such as animals, objects, or abstract concepts—are given human characteristics, emotions, or behaviors
a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things using connecting words like "like," "as," or "than."
Someone who does the speaking directly
blends different sensory modalities, describing one sense in terms of another (e.g., perceiving a sound as a color)
art of something is used to represent the whole, or occasionally, a whole represents the part (e.g., hand represents whole human)