Encyclopedia > Meiosis (figure of speech)

Article Content

Meiosis (figure of speech)

Meiosis is a figure of speech which intentionally understates something or implies that it is less in significance, size, than it really is.

The hero says his wound is "only a scratch", employing meiosis. W. C. Fields enters a palatial home, glances up at the ceiling two stories above, and says "Nice teepee."

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!

Featured Article

Monty Woolley

... and lecturer at Yale University (one of his students was Thornton Wilder) who began acting on Broadway in 1936. He was typecast as the wasp-tongued, supercilliou ...