litotes

Definitions

1. A figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite.
   countable, rhetoric, uncountable
2. The negation of a negative quality to assert a positive.
   countable, especially, rhetoric, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The delicacy which prompts a later generation to reject⟳ that name⟳ is by no means necessarily a result⟳ of stricter habits, is far more often due to the flatness which comes of untiring repetition and to the greater piquancy of litotes.”

CEFR level