Auxesis (ok-see’-sis): (1) Arranging words or clauses in a sequence of increasing force. In this sense, auxesis is comparable to climax and has sometimes been called incrementum. (2) A figure of speech in which something is referred to in terms disproportionately large (a kind of exaggeration or hyperbole). (3) Amplification in general.
One, two, three! There you go! Have a good fall. Too bad you can’t fly. Ha ha! I came. I looked. I shoved. You came. You stood. You fell.
How’s the water? How was your five-foot free fall? Was it like jumping off the moon, or the Empire State Building, or the edge of the Grand Canyon? Lucky, you didn’t hit your head on one of the 25 foot catfish lurking down there. Can you feel one rubbing on your leg?
Oh my God! What’s that thing behind you? Yech! It’s Mr. Mack our school janitor. Oh my God! He’s wearing a banana hammock! Let’s get the hell out of here, he’s got a camera. His weirdness is bigger than a bull on steroids or the other side of the moon.
- Post your own auxesis on the “Comments” page!
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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