Auxesis (figure of speech)

In rhetoric, auxesis is a form of hyperbole that intentionally overstates something or implies that it is greater in significance or size than it really is. Auxesis is the opposite of meiosis.^[1][2][3]

Auxesis may also refer to a sequence of clauses with increasing force. In this sense, auxesis is comparable to, but not synonymous with climax.^[4]

Examples

Of the hyperbole:

• Referring to a scratch as a wound.

Of a sequence of clauses with increasing force:

• All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, all our ignorance brings us nearer to death, but nearness to death no nearer to God. (T.S. Eliot, "The Rock")
• Morton found the food indifferent; Winston considered it abhorrent; Simon killed the cook.

References

1. ^ Encarta World English Dictionary (1999)
2. ^ The Times English Dictionary (2000)
3. ^ OED 1st edition
4. ^ Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University Silva Rhetoricae

See also

• Climax
• Figure of speech
• Paradiastole
• Euphemism