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Figure of Speech for Competitive Exams – Use of Synecdoche, Metonymy

Vishal Gupta
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Dear Readers, here in this part we are going to discuss some more figures of speech like Synecdoche, Metonymy, Couplet, Exaggeration ( Hyperbole ),  Understatement etc. In the First Part of Figure of Speech, we had told you about the use of Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Alliteration along with their definition. So get ready to learn something about other figures of speech from below –

1. Check the use Synecdoche –

It’s a Greek word which means ‘ taking together ‘. This is one of the most effective figurative device used by the poets to convey the understanding of one thing by means of another. In it a part is put for the whole.

Example –

  • Fifty sails stand for Fifty ships
  • The smiling year can be used for Spring Season

In Synecdoche, the material is substituted for the thing made.

Example –

  • The marble speaks. It means that the statue made of marble.
  • Do we have any coppers ? ( coin made of copper )

In Synecdoche, one thing is understood for another ;

For example –

  • I appreciate the hand that has written this poetry.

Here hand stands for the poet.

Use of Metonymy –

This is a figure of speech in which one word is used with the intention that it will suggest another. For example, the crown stands for the kingship.

Another examples of Metonymy –

  • I have never read Shakespeare. ( works of Shakespeare )
  • He drank the cup. ( Tea or Coffee )

Learn about figure of speech used in Figure of Speech

Hyperbole –

In this figure of speech exaggeration is deliberately used for literary effect.

Example –

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships

And burnt the topless towers of Illium

Bhima had the power of 100 elephants.

Description of Understatement –

It is hyperbole in reverse. It states an idea less powerfully than the literal accuracy demands. The purpose of its use to create irony.

Example :

  • He can’t kill even a mouse.
  • She can’t read this book, what to speak of learning.

Couplet Definition and example –

In Hindi it is called Doha. It consists of two successive lines of poetry rhyming with each other.

Example –

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ;

Drink deep. or taste not the Pierian spring.

For part 3, we shall appear again.

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