Meiosis (figure of speech)

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Meiosis is a figure of speech that intentionally understates something or implies that it is lesser in significance or size than it really is. Meiosis often appears similar to auxesis except that in auxesis, the goal is ironic effect not a diminished sense of importance.

The term meiosis is derived from the Greek mei-o-o (“to make smaller”, "to diminish").

[edit] Examples

• "The Troubles" as a name for decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
• A lawyer defending a schoolboy who has set fire to his school might call the act of arson a "prank." In this case using meiosis to attempt to diminish the significance of what he had done (in this case grand arson) to the level of a harmless joke or minor act of vandalism.

[edit] See also

• Auxesis
• Figure of speech
• Litotes
• Paradiastole

[edit] References

• Burton, Gideon O.. Meiosis. Silva Rhetoricae. Retrieved on December 24, 2006.

• Meiosis. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved on December 24, 2006.