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A litotes is a deliberate understatement. Or should I say, it is not an accidental overstatement. Often litotes will be seen as double negatives, like "not too shabby" or "not bad". In Latin we see this a lot with the word "non". But don't think that a litotes HAS to be a double negative. Robert Frost would suggest otherwise. I hope this video will suffice.
figures of speech
Synchysis (Synchesis, Synchisis) is the disarrangement of words, often in A-B-A-B order. Latin can do this because cases matter far more than word order. Synchysis is similar to chiasmus (A-B-B-A order), and often the two are confused on tests. Oh, and never underestimate the power of the Golden Line.
Chiasmus is the A-B-B-A order of words or phrases. Often in Latin this is represented with different bits of grammar, like the placement of verbs and nouns. Latin also uses chiasmus with adjective-noun combinations. With chiasmus, what's fair is foul and foul is fair.
culture figures of speech
The simile is a comparison between two things which is introduced by the words "like" or "as", or in Latin, qualis, ut, velut, or tamquam. The word "simile" itself comes from the Latin word similis, which means similar. This video discusses what similes are and provides examples from Latin literature.
