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Amplification

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A rhetorical technique of expanding or elaborating a thought through repetition, detail, or variation

Detailed Definition
Amplificatio is a rhetorical and poetic strategy involving the deliberate expansion or elaboration of a thought through repetition, accumulation, or detailed description to heighten emotional impact or emphasize significance; originating in classical oratory, it appears in poetry as extended metaphors, cataloging, or syntactic parallelism—such as in Milton’s invocations—where a single idea is magnified through layered expression without redundancy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare amplifies grief in Hamlet: “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / Make up my sum”; Milton’s Paradise Lost amplifies Satan’s fall: “Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky”; In “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats amplifies sensory experience: “Tasting of Flora and the country green, / Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!”; Whitman’s “Song of Myself” uses amplification to encompass multitudes: “I contain multitudes”; In John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Book I, Satan’s speech is amplified through extended metaphors and rhetorical elaboration to heighten his tragic grandeur; Modern example: “Her sorrow wasn’t just tears—it was oceans, earthquakes, collapsed stars.”

Shakespeare’s “Richard II” uses amplificatio in the garden scene: “Go bind thou up yon dangling apricots…” where pruning becomes metaphor for kingship; Cicero’s rhetorical style, echoed in Milton’s “Lycidas,” expands grief through layered pastoral imagery; In “Paradise Lost,” Milton elaborates Satan’s fall with repeated epithets and extended similes; Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover” amplifies a falcon’s flight into spiritual revelation through dense description.
Additional Notes
A rhetorical device expanding a statement with details, examples, or repetitions to enhance emotional or persuasive impact; in poetry, used to deepen imagery or emphasize a theme—related to auxesis and dilation; (Amplificatio) Galician verse form—dawn song variant. Woman laments lover's departure at daybreak. Similar to aubade but distinct cultural tradition. Part of Galician-Portuguese medieval lyric.

Amplificatio is a rhetorical technique that expands or elaborates an idea through repetition, synonyms, or detailed description to heighten emotional or persuasive effect; common in classical oratory and Baroque poetry.
Other Meanings of “Amplification”
Also Known As
Expansion Elaboration Amplificatio accumulation Addition Dilation exaggeration Overstatement Exergasia rhetorical amplification ornate expansion verbal augmentation Amplification technique Conceit Amplification Auxesis
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