Home › Glossary › Letter F

Frozen figure

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 figure that has become clichéd through repeated use

Detailed Definition
A frozen figure is a rhetorical or poetic device—such as a simile or allusion—that has lost its original power through overuse, becoming a conventionalized expression rather than a vivid, imaginative construction.
Example
Example in poetry:
Frozen figure: Fixed, repeated metaphor like “Time is a thief”; Clichéd personification like “Death’s cold hand”; Overused symbolic phrase “The tides of fate”; Static imagery lacking development
Additional Notes
Frozen figure: A metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that has become conventional and lifeless through overuse; students should aim to avoid these in favor of fresh imagery; similar to clichéd comparison (7186).
Also Known As
Dead figure Petrified metaphor Calcified image Fossilized comparison Dead metaphor
Skip to main content