14 Words Even English Majors Aren't Sure How To Pronounce

    Just in case you want to work "synecdoche" into casual conversation.

    Alex Naidus
    by Alex Naidus

    BuzzFeed Staff

    1.

    juniperbooks.com

    Oeuvre (n): the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively.

    2.

    wallmay.net

    Synecdoche (n): a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole of something, or vice-versa. For example, saying "nice wheels" when you're really referring to the entire car.

    3.

    chicquero.com

    Mimesis (n): imitation; mimicry.

    4.

    education-portal.com

    Denouement (n): The final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work.

    5.

    karnscoc.org

    Exegesis (n): A critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text.

    6.

    gorillafilmmagazine.com

    Mise-en-scène (n): the arrangement of actors and scenery on a stage for a theatrical production. Also: environment, milieu.

    7.

    techcomp.co.nz

    Scansion (n): The analysis of poetic verse to show its meter.

    8.

    occforeclosure.net

    Bildungsroman (n): A novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character.

    9.

    commons.wikimedia.org

    Apotheosis (n): Elevation to divine status. Also: the perfect example; quintessence.

    10.

    aintitcool.com

    Deus ex machina (n): A person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.

    11.

    criticaletteraria.org

    Anagnorisis (n): the point in the plot especially of a tragedy at which the protagonist recognizes his or her or some other character's true identity or discovers the true nature of his or her own situation.

    12.

    littlewishingstar.wordpress.com

    Caesura (n): A usually rhetorical break in the flow of sound in the middle of a line of verse.

    13.

    tampabay.com

    Metonymy (n): figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated (as “crown” in “lands belonging to the crown”).

    14.

    Getty/Ethan Miller/Staff

    Malapropism (n): The usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase.