This list includes 7 Literary devices that start with G that start with G, from “Gapping” to “Grotesque”. It covers common classroom staples and rarer terms useful for reading, teaching, and writing.
Literary devices that start with G are rhetorical and narrative techniques beginning with the letter G. Many help shape tone, characterization, or structure; “grotesque” famously defines a mood in Gothic literature.
Below you’ll find the table with Device, Definition, and Example.
Device: Shows the term so you can find and reference the literary device quickly while reading or teaching.
Definition: Gives a concise meaning you can use to explain the device or to identify it in a text.
Example: Provides a short contextual sentence showing the device in use, so you see how it functions.
Literary devices that start with G
| Name | Alternate names | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gapping | gapped coordination; ellipsis in coordination | syntactic ellipsis | John likes tea; Mary, coffee. |
| Garden-path sentence | garden-path; garden path sentence | syntactic/structural device | The old man the boats. |
| Genetic fallacy | fallacy of origin | rhetorical/logical fallacy | You can’t trust that idea—look where it came from. |
| Golden line | golden line; linea aurea | poetic hyperbaton | Adjective–adjective–verb–noun–noun interlocked for emphasis. |
| Gradatio | gradation; climax | rhetorical amplification | She whispered, then shouted, then screamed her defiance. |
| Gnomic statement | gnome; gnomic maxim; aphorism | aphorism/proverbial device | To err is human; to forgive, divine. |
| Grotesque | grotesque mode; grotesquerie | aesthetic/mode | A deformed figure blends horror, pity, and dark comedy. |