In rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

, auxesis is a form of hyperbole

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....

 that intentionally overstates something or implies that it is greater in significance or size than it really is. Auxesis is the opposite of meiosis

Meiosis (figure of speech)

In rhetoric, meiosis is a euphemistic figure of speech that intentionally understates something or implies that it is lesser in significance or size than it really is. Meiosis is the opposite of auxesis, and also sometimes used as a synonym for litotes...

.

Auxesis may also refer to a sequence of clause

Clause

In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...

s with increasing force. In this sense, auxesis is comparable to, but not synonymous with climax

Climax (figure of speech)

In rhetoric, a climax is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance. It is sometimes used with anadiplosis, which uses the repetition of a word or phrase in successive clauses.Examples:*"There are three things that will endure: faith,...

.

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.

See also

• Climax
  Climax (figure of speech)
  In rhetoric, a climax is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance. It is sometimes used with anadiplosis, which uses the repetition of a word or phrase in successive clauses.Examples:*"There are three things that will endure: faith,...
  
  
• Figure of speech
  Figure of speech
  A figure of speech is the use of a word or words diverging from its usual meaning. It can also be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile,...
  
  
• Paradiastole
  Paradiastole
  Paradiastole is the use of euphemism to soften the force of naming a vice or a virtue. It is often used ironically...
  
  
• Euphemism
  Euphemism
  A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...