Our Glossary of Grammatical & Rhetorical Terms is the web's most extensive dictionary of language-related words and expressions in English. Definitions of more than 800 terms are accompanied by examples, usage notes, and cross-references to expanded discussions elsewhere on About.com Grammar & Composition.
You'll find many familiar names in the glossary--terms for the traditional parts of speech, logical fallacies, and figures of speech, for example. But even diehard language lovers may be surprised by some of the weird, witty, and wonderful linguistic items we've collected.
For instance, in our Glossary of Grammatical & Rhetorical Terms, you'll find a name for . . .
- the trick of using a single adverb--obviously, undoubtedly--to "prove" an unsupported claim: boosting
- a word or phrase that makes a statement somewhat less forceful or assertive: verbal hedge
- a command (such as Pass the peas) put in the form of a question (Would you mind passing the peas?) to avoid giving offense: whimperative
- some jar-dropping and mind-bottling errors of spelling and pronunciation: eggcorns
- homemade words for the tube of cardboard inside a roll of toilet paper (and for other household items): family slang
- your spell checker's whimsical habit of replacing "Barack Obama" with "Burka Abeam," and "inconvenience" with "incontinence": Cupertino effect
- the principle that any criticism of the speech or writing of others will itself contain at least one error of usage or spelling: Muphry's Law
- a plural form of a noun (such as cod or cattle) that is identical to the singular form: zero plural
- the observation that, when trying to remember a word or name, people find it easier to recall the beginning and end of a lost item than the middle: bathtub effect
- that "spontaneous" remark you rehearsed for days: sprezzatura
- the small talk that often passes for conversation at work: phatic communication
- a word or a sequence of words (for example, Toyota) that sounds the same as a different sequence of words (toy Yoda): oronym
- the notion that any thought a person can have can be formulated in language, and that anything which can be expressed in one language can also be expressed in another: the principle of effability
- the late-medieval mark of punctuation (؟) used to signal the close of a rhetorical question: percontation mark
- speech or writing that's deliberately obscure: skotison
- free, frank, and fearless speech: parrhesia
- mishearing a line from "America the Beautiful" as "America! America! God is Chef Boyardee": mondegreen
- a single word (such as "Thanks") that's used to express a complete, meaningful thought: holophrase
- comedian Stephen Colbert's way of closing his program by thanking "all the people who made this show possible--thank you, Stephen Colbert": illeism
- a word (such as thingamajig or whatchamacallit) used to signal that we don't know or can't remember a more precise word for something: placeholder
You will find examples and explanations of these and over 800 other language-related words and phrases in our Glossary of Grammatical & Rhetorical Terms.
