Top Literary Devices Explained: Types and Examples Included

19 Jun 2025 38 Views Share

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In the typical fashion of English assignments, students often have to conduct thematic studies of the content they're reading. A recurring topic when examining literature is the use of literary devices. What are they? How does one identify and use them? Do they have multiple types? Read more to know!

What are Literary Devices?

Knowing the list of literary devices is useful in literature. These are tools, techniques and styles that any author can use to enhance or 'beautify' their writing.

In English, literary devices are pervasive. However, many are lesser-known as well. Let's first talk about some significant types or classes of elements of literature.

Types of Literary Devices You Should Know

Any student involved in writing an English assignment knows that there are just too many literary devices for them to use. While our experts deal with your "write my assignment for me" query, the list below describes broad classes of literary devices in brief:

1. Figurative Language

It refers to the use of descriptive words or phrases. They imply a meaning or a sense beyond their literal definition. It doesn't directly explain what it says. Instead, it subtly illustrates the emotions.

Examples: similes, metaphors, personification, etc.

2. Structural Devices

Whenever students learn about how to use literary devices in writing, they often tend to forget about structural devices. These are vital for the format of the text. Moreover, they can have a significant impact on the reader's experience. Plus, the student can implement at different levels, such as sentence, paragraph, or plot.

Examples: Connectors or Transition words, repetition, dialogue, flashbacks, changing sentence or paragraph structure, etc.

3. Sound Devices

These types of literary devices emphasise how a word sounds. The sound can influence the intent and impact of the text.

Examples:

• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Onomatopoeia, etc.

We have talked about the broad classes of English literary devices. However, students must be curious about how they should identify and examine these in a sample text.

How to Identify and Analyze Literary Devices?

It can be hard to practically study the poetic literary devices present in any given text. Hence, the student should follow these steps:

• Learn the Basics: Identify the key devices by increasing your overall knowledge and understanding of their effect on the reader.
• Engage with the Text: Read the text carefully, ask the right questions and look for any evident patterns. If this is something that you are struggling with, just use our Free AI essay writer and be done with it in a matter of minutes!
• Analysis Phase: Consider the bigger picture and understand its impact on the reader. Make suitable inferences.
• Practice: To get better at identifying and reading examples. In addition, analysing from varied contexts is also crucial.

Let's take a look at some of the most popular literary and rhetorical devices in the next section.

Popular Literary Devices with Definitions and Examples

Given the large number of literary devices, we at Instant Assignment Help figured that it would be better to talk about some common and some uncommon elements of literature. The two sections below delve into each of these sections, respectively, with examples of literary devices.

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Common Literary Devices

Some common literary devices with examples are:

1. Simile contrasts two things with like or as.
Example: Her smile was as vibrant as when the morning sunlight falls upon the flower dew.

2. Imagery uses flowery words to create vibrant mental pictures. In addition, it often appeals to the five senses.
Example: The dazzling blue enchanted me as it swept over my being; there I was, in the womb of the ocean.

3. A Paradox is a contradictory statement or situation, but often reveals a truth.
Example: "No, the sun never sets." This is a paradox because the sun does set, but it also never doesn't (considering every other place on Earth).

4. A metaphor is a comparison between two unique things.
Example: “The wheel of time crushes everything and everyone under its weight.”

5. Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound. It is usually at the beginning of near or closely linked words.
Example: Wither whether who will weather whose way?

6. An allegory is a story or visual image with a relatively esoteric theme.
Example: Andre Gide's Strait is the Gate is an allegory that explores the themes of love and faith through the biblical sense. In addition, the title itself references a phrase from the Bible, which means “The Path to Heaven is Narrow”.

7. Personification gives humanizes things or abstract concepts.
Example: Money talks. Wealth just sits silently and whispers.

8. Onomatopoeia are words that mimic natural sounds.
Example: The cloud's roar was heard throughout the prairie.

9. Irony occurs when there is a distinction between looks and reality.
Example: The police station was under siege.

10. Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two different words or phrases appear at the same time.
Example: The Giant was dwarfed by the ceiling of the sky.

11. Foreshadowing allows the writer to give hints about future events.
Example: The scattering of the web foreshadowed the clues to her murder mystery.

12. A euphemism is politely referring to an awkward scenario.
Example: "He passed away" instead of "He died."

13. Flashback is a scene or event set earlier than the current story that provides relevant background information.
Example: In the middle of the novel, the protagonist was struggling. He had a flashback to his childhood.

14. Analogy discerns any two things to elaborate upon an idea by showing how similar they are.
Example: "Like the wind rides the steppe, the horseman rides the horse.”

15. A Hyperbole is an amplified sentence not meant to be taken at its face value.
Example: “In all my thousands of years of being- I've never met someone as beautiful as you.”

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Uncommon Literary Devices

Here are some uncommon literary devices and it's examples:

1. Anachronism is when something is placed in a time where it doesn't belong.
Example: In a film set in the medieval era, a character glances at their wristwatch.

2. In an Apostrophe, the speaker targets an absent person or an idea.
Example: “O Mountain, where is thy head?”, an address to a Mountain as if it had a head.

3. Chiasmus is where two phrases are balanced against each other in reverse order.
Example: “Either believe me and let me free you, or get deceived and stay in your chains.”

4. Cliché is an overused phrase or opinion that isn't authentic or impactful.
Example: “Great power comes bearing great responsibilities.”

5. Cliffhanger< is an ending to a story that has some mystery or suspense.
Example: A chapter ends with the main character about to arrive at the centre of conflict.

6. Colloquialism refers to the slang used in regular discussion.
Example: “Wassup?” instead of what is up.

7. Consonance is a repeated consonant sound at the end of words.
Example: “The cricket's wicked.”

8. Dysphemism is using a harsh term to discuss an object or a person.
Example: Calling someone an old hag instead of an elderly woman.

9. Enjambment occurs when a line of poetry doesn't end at the expected place. But instead runs into the next line without a pause.
Example:
”The pain that you had wrought, because of
which my heart had begun to rot”

10. Epiphany is a sudden realization about the hidden nature of something.
Example: A character suddenly realizes that the murderer was someone they knew all along.

11. Epithet expresses a feature of a person or thing.
Example: “Ivan the Terrible” or “Timur the Lame”.

12. Epistolary is a text in the form of personal documents.
Example: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney is in a diary entry format.

13. Asyndeton involves removing transitives from phrases.
Example: “O, Heavens above! Give me wealth, give me power, give me immortality.”

14. Polysyndeton is the opposite of asyndeton. In it, conjunctions are used repeatedly.
Example: “We have the food and the wine and the money and the time.”

15. Hendiadys consists of using two nouns connected by a conjunction to express a single idea.
Example: “Noble and Rage” instead of just “rage.”

16. Hypophora is when the writer asks a question and answers it.
Example: “What made me sad? The lack of attention I get.”

17. Juxtaposition happens when we place two or more unique elements side by side.
Example: "While she made me extremely happy, she also made me very, very sad.”

18. Litotes is an understatement, uses a double negative.
Example: "He's not bad at archery," meaning he's quite good.

19. Malapropism is the wrong use of a word, but it sounds similar to the correct one.
Example: “We cannot let these thugs hold us ransom.”

20. Metonymy is where one thing is replaced with something that is close to it.
Example: "The Knight's Order issued a decree" (meaning the King or the knights).

21. Mimesis imitates real-life actions or behaviour to reflect human life.
Example: A play showing a character's struggle with loneliness to evoke empathy from the audience.

22. Non Sequitur is a concluding statement that might be related to the previous one logically.
Example: “He's wearing a purple shirt. He must be a great poet.”

23. Palimpsest is a form of document that has been forgotten and rewritten, but traces of the original remain. Shows layers of meaning.
Example: A character's past trauma is a suitable example of a Palimpsest.

24. Periphrasis uses more words than needed to describe something.
Example: “The one who always waters the shore” instead of “the ocean.”

25. Prolepsis is the opposite of flashback, a flash-forward.
Example: “Ten years later... He found the one he was looking for.”

26. Red Herring serves as a clue that misleads from the actual underlying issue.
Example: A murderer writes a misleading clue on the crime scene.

27. Reification gives an abstract concept a tangible form.

Example: “The mountain calls me- and I must answer.”

28. Sibilance is a type of alliteration of only sounds that start with “s”.

Example: “Slither-slather snake seldom scares several serfs.”

29. Stream of Consciousness captures the flow of thoughts of a character.
Example: Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human utilizes this device.

30. Zeugma is a device in which a single (nonsensical) word is applicable to multiple parts of a phrase.
Example: “My mother's necklace was stolen, and her sanity was stolen.”

Proven Tips to Use Literary Devices in Writing Essays and Assignments

Some proven tips according to the experts of our English Assignment Help Service are as follows:

1. Become aware of the use of each literary instrument.
2. Examine the effect that each device has on the text.
3. Do not overuse, only whenever necessary.
4. Provide clear examples and proper connections.

Hence, these tips can help you use in your essay or tasks. We hope this blog is helpful for student, and they learn about the many literary devices and their effects.

Also Read: 110+ Excellent Google Scholar Research Topics for a Better Study