Figures of speech

[Asad khan balooch]

Can you please tell me what are the different figures of speech?

[Mariner]

First of all, figure of speech is language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense. Having said that, even native speakers would feel awe seeing how many different categories there are. Here's a list from Webster's:
(I don't agree with all the following items; IMO, some should not be categorized as figures of speech)

• accumulatio
• allegory
• alliteration
• amplification
• anastrophe
• anthimeria
• antithesis
• aphorism
• aposiopesis
• apostrophe
• assonance
• axiom
• catachresis
• chiasmus
• circumlocution
• conceit
• denominatio
• ellipsis
• enallage
• euphemism
• figure
• hyperbaton
• hyperbole
• kenning
• idiom
• irony
• litotes
• meiosis
• metalepsis
• metaphor
• metonymy
• onomatopoeia
• parable
• paradox
• paralipsis
• paronomasia
• periphrasis
• perissologia
• personification
• pleonasm
• praeteritio
• procatalepsis
• proslepsis
• proverb
• pun
• rhetoric
• simile
• syllepsis
• synecdoche
• synonymia
• tertium comparationis
• trope
• tmesis (and dystmesis)
• zeugma

However, with the term "figure of speech" we usually refer to allegory, hyperbole, irony, metaphor and simile.

allegory=An expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor.

hyperbole=Extravagant exaggeration

irony=Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs

metaphor=an expression used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity.

simile=A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as').

[Tdol]

Some are defined here: http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary...of-speech.html