Terms : Hide Images
| 6590739780 | Epistrophe | The repetition of a word or group of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, verses, or sentences. | 0 | |
| 6590739781 | Hyperbole | Excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact. | 1 | |
| 6590739782 | Pathetic fallacy | The attribution of human feeling or motivation to a nonhuman object, especially an object found in nature. | 2 | |
| 6590739783 | Anthimeria | A type of pun in which one part of speech is substituted for another (in this case, a noun for a verb). | 3 | |
| 6590739784 | Parison | The correspondence of words within successive sentences or clauses, either by direct repetition of a specific word or by matching up nouns or verb forms. | 4 | |
| 6590739785 | Alliteration | The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words. | 5 | |
| 6590739786 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something is referred to by one of its attributes. | 6 | |
| 6590739787 | Anadiplosis | Repetition of an important word from one phrase or clause (usually the last word) at the start of the next phrase or clause. | 7 | |
| 6590739788 | Periphrasis | The substitution of an illustrative or descriptive word or phrase in place of a proper noun. (periphrasis can also apply to the reverse-the use of a proper noun as a description.) | 8 | |
| 6590739789 | Cosmic Irony | The perception of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering, which creates a painful contrast between a character's purposeful activity and its ultimate meaninglessness. | 9 | |
| 6590739790 | Cliche | An expression that has been used so frequently it has lost its expressive power. | 10 | |
| 6590739791 | Epizeuxis | Repetition of the same word with no other words in between for emphasis. | 11 | |
| 6590739792 | Biography | The nonfictional story of an individual's life, written by someone else. | 12 | |
| 6590739793 | Bildungsroman | A novel about the education or psychological growth of the protagonist (or main character). | 13 | |
| 6590739794 | Metaphor | The comparison of unlike things without the use of like or as. | 14 | |
| 6590739795 | Argument by Comparison | A means of argument by which two situations are presented as similar (or dissimilar), usually to suggest that what is valid for one situation should be valid for the other. | 15 | |
| 6590739796 | Chiasmus | Two phrases in which the syntax is the same but the placement of words is reversed. (This quotation is also an example of aphorism.) | 16 | |
| 6590739797 | Mixed Metaphor | A combination of metaphors (comparisons of unlike things without the use of like or as) that produces a confused or contradictory image. | 17 | |
| 6590739798 | In medias res | Latin for "in the middle of things"; refers to the technique of starting a narrative in the middle of the action. | 18 | |
| 6590739799 | Ellipsis | A figure of speech in which a word or short phrase is omitted but easily understood from the context. | 19 | |
| 6590739800 | Delayed Sentence | A sentence that delays introducing the subject and verb (or independent clause) until the end. | 20 | |
| 6590739801 | Hard Evidence | The use of empirical or factual data in support of an argument. | 21 | |
| 6590739802 | Poetic Diction | The use of specific types or words, phrases, or literary structures that are not common in contemporary speech or prose. | 22 | |
| 6590739803 | Personification | The use of human characteristics to describe animals, objects, or ideas. (This quotation exemplifies pathetic fallacy.) | 23 | |
| 6590739804 | Argument by Definition | Form of argument in which the writer defines a term by placing it in a particular category, thereby claiming that what is true for the whole category is true for the particular term. | 24 | |
| 6590739805 | Bathos | A sudden and unexpected drop from the lofty to the trivial or excessively sentimental. | 25 | |
| 6590739806 | Catalog | A list of people or things. | 26 | |
| 6590739807 | Assonance | The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. | 27 | |
| 6590739808 | Repetition | By bringing up words or ideas on multiple occasions, authors emphasize the importance of these words or ideas. | 28 | |
| 6590739809 | Synaesthesia | The use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another. | 29 | |
| 6590739810 | Poetic License | The right of an author to change elements of reality or to break rules to form-or other conventions-to achieve an effect in a piece of writing. | 30 | |
| 6590739811 | Canon | An evolving group of literary works considered essential to a culture's literary tradition. | 31 | |
| 6590739812 | Euphemism | The use of decorous language to express unpleasant or vulgar ideas, events, or actions. | 32 | |
| 6590739813 | Emblem | A concrete object that represents something abstract; unlike a symbol, it has a fixed meaning and does not change over time. | 33 | |
| 6590739814 | Epithet | An adjective or phrase that describes a prominent or distinguished feature of a person or thing. | 34 | |
| 6590739815 | Polyptoton | The repetition of words that come from the same root word. | 35 | |
| 6590739816 | Asyndeton | The omission of coordinating conjunctions, such as in a series. | 36 | |
| 6590739817 | Antithesis | The contrasting of ideas by the use of parallel structure in phrases or clauses. | 37 | |
| 6590739818 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words that sound like the thing or action they refer to. | 38 | |
| 6590739819 | Litotes | Deliberate understatement in which an idea or opinion is often affirmed by negating its opposite. | 39 | |
| 6590739820 | Meiosis | A form of understatement in which something is referred to by a name that is disproportionate to its true nature. | 40 | |
| 6590739821 | Appeal to the probable or likely | A form of argument in which a claim is supported by reference to what seems most plausible or what one would expect in a given situation. Such appeals are usually made when more solid or factual evidence is unavailable. | 41 | |
| 6590739822 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole, or the reverse-when a genus is referred to by a species. (in this case, "sails" stands in for a fleet of ships.) | 42 | |
| 6590739823 | Inductive Reasoning | Reasoning in which one arrives at a general conclusion from specific instances. | 43 | |
| 6590739824 | Anaphora | Repeated use of a word or phrase at the start of successive phrases or sentences for effect; also the use of a pronoun to refer to an antecedent (noun). | 44 | |
| 6590739825 | Aphorism | A concise expression of insight or wisdom. | 45 | |
| 6590739826 | Anachronism | An error in chronology; a reference that is inconsistent or inaccurate in view of the time in which a story is set. | 46 | |
| 6590739827 | Apostrophe | A direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea. | 47 | |
| 6590739828 | Allegory | A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds directly with symbolic meaning; in an allegory, each element symbolizes something else. | 48 | |
| 6590739829 | Analogy | A comparison based on a specific similarity between things that are otherwise unlike, or the inference that if two things are alike in some ways, they will be alike in others. Often analogies draw a comparison between something abstract and something more concrete or easier to visualize. | 49 | |
| 6590739830 | Auxesis | Arranging words or clauses in a sequence of increasing force. | 50 | |
| 6590739831 | Aposiopesis | A breaking off of speech, usually due to rising emotion or excitement. | 51 | |
| 6590739832 | Pun (also called paronomasia) | A play on words that exploits the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different meanings. | 52 | |
| 6590739833 | Simile | A comparison of two unlike things through the use of like or as. | 53 | |
| 6590739834 | Argument from cause and effect | A form of argument in which a cause-and-effect relationship is presented in support of another proposition. | 54 | |
| 6590739835 | Oxymoron | The association or two contradictory terms. | 55 | |
| 6590739836 | Deductive Reasoning | Reasoning in which one derives a specific conclusion from something generally or universally understood to be true. | 56 | |
| 6590739837 | Consonance | The repetition of consonants in a sequence of nearby words, especially at the end of stressed syllables when there is no similar repetition of vowel sounds. (These lines also exemplify alliteration through the repetition of the "r" sounds.) | 57 | |
| 6590739838 | Rhetorical Question | A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to call attention to or assert something. | 58 | |
| 6590739839 | Allusion | An implicit reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person, place, or event. (In this case, the title is taken from a monologue in Macbeth and thus alludes to Shakespeare's play.) | 59 | |
| 6590739840 | Paradox | A statement that seems absurd or even contradictory but that often expresses a deeper truth. | 60 | |
| 6590739841 | Archetype | A theme, motif, symbol, or character that holds a familiar and fixed place in a culture's consciousness. | 61 | |
| 6590739842 | Symbol | A concrete object that is made to represent something abstract (in this case, the fish represents youth). | 62 | |
| 6590739843 | Dramatic Irony (also called tragic irony) | A technique in which the author lets the reader in on a character's situation while the character remains in the dark; thus the character's words and actions carry a significance that he or she is not aware of. | 63 | |
| 6590739844 | Colloquialism | An informal or slang expression, especially in the context of formal writing. | 64 | |
| 6590739845 | Romantic Irony | A technique in which an author reminds the reader of his or her presence in the work. By drawing attention to the artifice of the work, the author ensures that the reader will remain critically detached and not accept the writing at face value. (This particular technique is also called metafiction or self-reflexivity and represents one variety of postmodernism.) | 65 | |
| 6590739846 | Sarcasm | A simple form of verbal irony, in which it is obvious from context and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says. | 66 | |
| 6590739847 | Atanaclasis | A type of pun in which one word is repeated in two different senses. | 67 | |
| 6590739848 | Situational irony | A technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast with another, usually more prevalent understanding of the same situation. | 68 | |
| 6590739849 | Autobiography | The narrative of a person's life, written by that person. | 69 | |
| 6590739850 | Syllogism | A formal argument involving deductive reasoning, in which a specific conclusion is inferred from a general statement. In this type of argument, the speaker offers a general and a specific premise, as well as a conclusion. | 70 | |
| 6590739851 | Paralipsis | The technique of drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it. | 71 | |
| 6590739852 | Polysyndeton | Deliberate use of many conjunctions in succession. | 72 | |
| 6590739853 | Appeal to special rules or principles | In an argument, the citation of rules or laws that an audience believes in, such as the principle that all human beings are created equal. | 73 | |
| 6590739854 | Appeal to tradition | a fallacy which assumes that something old is automatically better than something new. | 74 | |
| 6590739855 | Hamartia (also called tragic flaw) | a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine. | 75 | |
| 6590739856 | Cacophony | Harsh, discordant, or meaningless mixture of sounds. | 76 | |
| 6590739857 | Epanalepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. | 77 | |
| 6590739858 | Isocolon | A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. | 78 | |
| 6590739859 | Parallelism | Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other. | 79 | |
| 6590739860 | Hyperbaton | A scheme of unusual or inverted word order. | 80 | |
| 6590739861 | Juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts. | 81 | |
| 6590739862 | Neologism | new word or expression. | 82 | |
| 6590739863 | Diction | A writer's or speaker's choice of words. | 83 | |
| 6590739864 | Negotiation | Mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement. | 84 | |
| 6590739865 | Objective narration/third-person objective point of view | A style in which the narrator reports on the outward behavior of the characters but offers no interpretation of their actions or their inner states. | 85 | |
| 6590739866 | Enthymeme | an argument in which one premise is not explicitly stated. | 86 | |
| 6590739867 | Exposition | Background information presented in a literary work. | 87 | |
| 6590739868 | Evidence | Specific facts or examples used to support a claim in a piece of writing. | 88 | |
| 6590739869 | Emphasis | Force or intensity of expression brought to bear on a particular part of a text or speech. | 89 | |
| 6590739870 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. | 90 | |
| 6590739871 | Realism | A 19th century artistic movement in which writers and painters sought to show life as it is rather than life as it should be. | 91 | |
| 6590739872 | Digression | wandering away from the subject. | 92 | |
| 6590739873 | Foil | A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast. | 93 | |
| 6590739874 | Rhetoric | The art of using language effectively and persuasively. | 94 | |
| 6590739875 | Satire | A work that exposes to ridicule the shortcomings of individuals, institutions, or society, often to make a political point. | 95 | |
| 6590739876 | Motif | A recurring theme, subject or idea. | 96 | |
| 6590739877 | Allegory | A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds directly with symbolic meaning. | 97 | |
| 6590739878 | Active Voice | Expresses an action done by its subject. | 98 | |
| 6590739879 | Convention | In writing, a practice or principle, that is accepted as a true or correct. | 99 | |
| 6590739880 | Ethos | The overall character, moral makeup, or guiding beliefs of an individual, group, or institution. | 100 | |
| 6590739881 | Free indirect discourse / third-person limited point of view | A literary style in which the narrator conveys a character's inner thoughts while discussing these thoughts in the third person, using proper names and the third-person pronouns he, she, it, and they. | 101 | |
| 6590739882 | Mood | Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader. | 102 | |
| 6590739883 | Dialectic | A form of reasoning that proceeds by juxtaposing contradictory ideas and synthesising or finding areas of agreement between them. | 103 | |
| 6590739884 | Device | A technique, such as a figure of speech, an author employs to achieve a certain literary or artistic effect. | 104 | |
| 6590739885 | Omniscient narration / third-person omniscient point of view | A literary style in which the narrator knows all the actions, feelings, and motivations of all the characters and discusses these using proper names and the third-person pronouns he, she, it, and they. | 105 | |
| 6590739886 | Opening | The beginning of an argument or essay, the introduction. | 106 | |
| 6590739887 | Epigraph | a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme. | 107 | |
| 6590739888 | Epitaph | A brief statement to memorialize a deceased person or a thing, time, or event that has ended. | 108 | |
| 6590739889 | Refutation | The process of proving something wrong by argument or evidence. | 109 | |
| 6590739890 | Melodrama | A literary form in which events are exaggerated in order to create an extreme emotional response. | 110 | |
| 6590739891 | Nostalgia | longing for the past. | 111 | |
| 6590739892 | Narrative Device | A design or pattern in a literary work used to achieve a particular effect. | 112 | |
| 6590739893 | Red Herring | An argument that distracts the reader by raising issues irrelevant to the case. | 113 | |
| 6590739894 | Ambiguity | An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. | 114 | |
| 6590739895 | Discourse | The wider social and intellectual context in which communication takes place. | 115 | |
| 6590739896 | Euphony | pleasant, harmonious sound. | 116 | |
| 6590739897 | Eulogy | speech in praise of someone. | 117 | |
| 6590739898 | Explication | The interpretation or analysis of a text. | 118 | |
| 6590739899 | Rhetorical Context | The circumstances in which a text is written. | 119 | |
| 6590739900 | Mediation | The process of bringing opposing parties or positions into a state of accord or compromise; also refers to negotiation. | 120 | |
| 6590739901 | Reflective | Illustrating innermost thoughts and emotions. | 121 | |
| 6590739902 | Formal | Following established rules or conventions of writing. | 122 | |
| 6590739903 | Rhetorical Device | literary techniques used to heighten the effectiveness of expression. | 123 | |
| 6590739904 | Consequence | An inference or conclusion derived through logic, or the result following from a cause. | 124 | |
| 6590739905 | Retrospection | the action of looking backwards to things in the past. | 125 | |
| 6590739906 | Foreshadow | A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader. | 126 | |
| 6590739907 | Epistolary | Narrated through letters. | 127 | |
| 6590739908 | Genre | A category or type of literature characterized by a particular form, style, or content. | 128 | |
| 6590739909 | Ode | A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 129 | |
| 6590739910 | Convincing | The process of making an audience believe or agree with something. | 130 | |
| 6590739911 | Myth | a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. | 131 | |
| 6590739912 | Expletive | A syllable, word, or group of words added to fill a void, but which do not add to the meaning of a piece of writing. | 132 | |
| 6590739913 | Narrator | Person telling the story. | 133 | |
| 6590739914 | Narrative | A story. | 134 | |
| 6590739915 | Colloquialism | informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing. | 135 | |
| 6590739916 | Closure | An ending or completion, or something that gives a sense of finality. | 136 | |
| 6590739917 | Connotation | All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests. | 137 | |
| 6590739918 | Denotation | The dictionary definition of a word. | 138 | |
| 6590739919 | Epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight. | 139 | |
| 6590739920 | Dialogue | Conversation between characters. | 140 | |
| 6590739921 | Climax | Most exciting moment of the story; turning point. | 141 | |
| 6590739922 | Didactic | Instructive. | 142 | |
| 6590739923 | Protagonist | Main character. | 143 | |
| 6590739924 | First-person narration/ first-person point of view | A literary in which the narrator tells a story from his or her point of view. | 144 | |
| 6590739925 | Conclusion | The end of an argument, the function of which is to summarize or draw together what has come before and/ or to draw final inferences from what has already been stated. | 145 | |
| 6590739926 | Register | One of the varieties of language appropriate to particular social situations. | 146 | |
| 6590739927 | Abstract | Not attached to anything specific or concrete. | 147 | |
| 6590739928 | Cosmic irony | Type of irony where it seems that God or fate is manipulating events so as to inspire false hopes, which are inevitably dashed. | 148 |
