Speeches Word Bank

13 March 2023

Rhetorical device: a technique or word construction that a speaker or writer uses to win an audience to their side, either while trying to persuade them to do something or trying to win an argument. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Paralanguage: the non-lexical component of communication by speech, for example intonation, pitch and speed of speaking, hesitation noises, gesture. Example: You might speak quickly if you are excited about something.

anaphora: the repetition of words or phrases in a group of sentences, clauses, or poetic lines. “Stay safe. Stay well. Stay happy."

diacope: when a writer repeats a word or phrase with one or more words in between. "Home, Sweet Home"

antithesis: creates a juxtaposition of qualities using a parallel grammatical structure. "Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer."

chiasmus: words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order. “Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure.”

anadiplosis: repetition of a prominent and usually the last word in one phrase or clause at the beginning of the next. "She opened a café, a café that ruined her financially."

amplification: Repetition of word or phrase with the addition of more detail.

metaphor: word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. "Life is a highway."

alliteration: the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"

tricolon: three clearly defined parts of equal length, usually independent clauses. "Veni, vidi, vici"

appeal: persuade audience to accept a certain point of view. Examples: Story

ethos: The speaker tries to show the audience that he or she is reliable, credible, and trustworthy.

pathos: to persuade an audience by purposely evoking certain emotions to make them feel the way the author wants them to feel.

logos: appeal to the audiences' sense of reason or logic.

argument: premise and a claim

parallelism: a parallel construction in which similar or repeated words, phrases, clauses, or sentence structure appear. "Easy come, easy go"

hypophora: the speaker raises a question and then answers it. "When the enemy struck on that June day of 1950, what did America do? It did what it always has done in all its times of peril."

repetition: help people in the audience quickly sort and rank what's most relevant while they are listening. Repetition has the power to elevate an idea above everything else the audience is hearing. “I have a dream that my four little children will [...] I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia [...] I have a dream today!"

figurative speech: a creative use of language to generate an effect. **“that news hit me like a ton of bricks"**

polysyndeton: repeated use of coordinating conjunctions to connect different items in a sentence. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers. "

allusion: a reference to a well-known person, character, place, or event that a writer makes to deepen the reader's understanding of their work. "Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel."

target audience: they are the ones that a speaker should be primarily concerned with. Composing a speech with them in mind enables a speaker to have their greatest impact.

persona: the role adopted by the speaker in addressing the audience.