Euphemism
Figures of speechSoftening a brutal or taboo reality with a milder expression: "he passed away" for "he died."
Example
"He passed away last night"; "a workforce adjustment."
A euphemism replaces a brutal, shocking or taboo word with a softened phrasing: "he passed away," "downsizing," "senior citizens." Unlike litotes, which understates to intensify, euphemism understates to spare — the reader, the listener, or propriety.
For a writer it's a double tool. Straight, it renders a character's voice: someone who says "departed" rather than "dead" reveals their relationship to grief. At one remove, it becomes a critical weapon: exposing an institution's euphemisms (military, managerial, political) is one of satire's fundamental gestures — "surgical strike" says a lot about what one wants left unsaid.
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