Dictionary.com
definitions

figure of speech

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR figure of speech ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural figures of speech. Rhetoric.

any expressive use of language, as a metaphor, simile, personification, or antithesis, in which words are used in other than their literal sense, or in other than their ordinary locutions, in order to suggest a picture or image or for other special effect.Compare trope(def 1).

RELATED CONTENT

What Is Freedom of Speech?
Which amendment gives us freedom of speech? “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” -First Amendment to the Constitution We Americans love to refer to the First …
READ MORE
The Chiefs of Presidential Speech
Read more in this article about some frequently asked questions and fun facts related to our definitions.
READ MORE

RELATED WORDS

allegory, allusion, analogy, anticlimax, antithesis, bathos, comparison, conceit, device, euphemism, euphuism, exaggeration, expression, flourish, flower, hyperbole, image, imagery, irony, metaphor

Origin of figure of speech

First recorded in 1815–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for figure of speech

figure of speech

noun

an expression of language, such as simile, metaphor, or personification, by which the usual or literal meaning of a word is not employed
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012