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| 7142758038 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words. The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, and/or echo the sense of the passage. | 0 | |
| 7142765280 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. | 1 | |
| 7142766019 | Lexical Ambiguity | A word in a word, phrase, sentence, or passage has two or more possible meanings. Often used to create puns or wordplay. Ex: I'll give you a ring tomorrow. (Ambiguous because: Are you giving someone jewelry or a call?) | 2 | |
| 7142770450 | Syntactic Ambiguity | the structure of a phrase, sentence, or passage creates multiple meanings. Ex: A newspaper headline reading: "Miners refuse to work after death." (Ambiguous because: Are they working after they, themselves, have died? Or Was there another death that caused the miners to boycott?) | 3 | |
| 7142773836 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them, used to explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. Ex: Green is to go as red is to stop. | 4 | |
| 7142777053 | Anaphora | The repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or phrases. Ex: Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream:" "And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado...." | 5 | |
| 7142778622 | Anastrophe | The inversion or reversal of the usual order of words. Ex: Echoed the hills. | 6 | |
| 7142778623 | Antithesis | The opposition or contrast of ideas; the direct opposite. | 7 | |
| 7142782648 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. An aphorism can be a memorable summation of the author's point. | 8 | |
| 7142782649 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. Ex: In "Sound of Silence," Paul Simon sings: "Hello, darkness, my old friend." | 9 | |
| 7142783507 | Appositive | A phrase that renames or modifies another noun right beside it. Ex: My favorite place to visit is Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire, but I only like to go there with Julia, my best friend. | 10 | |
| 7142783508 | Assonance | The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words. Ex: "...When at once I saw a crowd, / A host, of golden daffodils; / Beside the lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze" (from William Wordsworth's "Daffodils"; "o" then "e" sounds.) | 11 | |
| 7142784137 | Asyndeton | A syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing a more rapid pace. Ex: "Veni, vidi, veci." | 12 | |
| 7142784860 | Colloquialism | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects. | 13 | |
| 7142785402 | Connotation | The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. Ex: the denotation of a house and home are the same: a building for living. The connotation of a house is more cold and detached; the connotation of a home is inviting, warm, and safe | 14 | |
| 7142785767 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. Ex: the denotation of a house and home are the same: a building for living. The connotation of a house is more cold and detached; the connotation of a home is inviting, warm, and safe | 15 | |
| 7142786229 | Diction | Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choice, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. Some examples of ways to describe diction are: formal or informal and ornate or plain. | 16 | |
| 7142786293 | Dialect | The language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region, or group. | 17 | |
| 7142787452 | Epistrophe | The repetition of a phrase at the end of successive sentences or phrases. Ex: "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." | 18 | |
| 7142787915 | Euphemism | More agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. The euphemism may be used to adhere to standards of social or political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement. Ex: Saying someone "passed away" instead of "died" | 19 | |
| 7142804599 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 20 | |
| 7142805177 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 21 | |
| 7142806491 | Figure of Speech | A generic term for a device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Ex: apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 22 | |
| 7142806492 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. Ex: "You should learn this by now. We've done this a million times before." | 23 | |
| 7142807142 | Idiom | A common piece of figurative language understood to mean something different from its literal meaning; often idioms are used in colloquial speech Ex: "pulling your leg" means to make fun of someone; it has nothing to do with actual leg pulling. | 24 | |
| 7142807596 | Imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. | 25 | |
| 7142808452 | Invective | An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. Ex: In Monty Python's "The Architect Sketch," John Cleese's character says, "This is just the sort of blinkered philistine pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage..." | 26 | |
| 7142809184 | Irony | The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true. | 27 | |
| 7142809185 | Jargon | a set of words and phrases that are used and understood by people in the same occupation or profession Ex: Navy jargon includes "deck" for floor, "hatch" for door, "grunt" for Marine, "rack" for bed, "gonk" for sleep. Therefore, a person in the Navy may say to another Navy person: "If you look through that hatch, you'll see the visiting Grunt having a gonk on the deck instead of his rack." | 28 | |
| 7142811894 | Juxtaposition | The location of one thing adjacent to another to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some purpose. Ex: placing the tallest and the shortest people in a room next to each other to highlight the variety of height | 29 | |
| 7142812447 | Litotes | A form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. Ex: "Not a bad idea," or "Not many" | 30 | |
| 7142812448 | Metaphor | A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity. Metaphorical language makes writing more vivid, imaginative, thought provoking, and meaningful. Ex: "You are my sunshine." | 31 | |
| 7142813916 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. Ex: a news release that claims "the White House declared" rather than "the President declared" is using metonymy | 32 | |
| 7142813963 | Mood | The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, characters, and events can affect the mood. | 33 | |
| 7142814686 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. Ex: "jumbo shrimp" and "cruel kindness." | 34 | |
| 7142814715 | Paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. Ex: The beginning of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." | 35 | |
| 7142815560 | Personification | A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. Personification is used to make these abstractions, animals, or objects appear more vivid to the reader. Ex: "The donuts on the table were calling out to me, urging me to ignore my carrot sticks." | 36 | |
| 7142815890 | Point of View | The perspective from which a narrative is told. There are three general divisions of point of view, and many subdivisions within those. | 37 | |
| 7142817347 | First Person P.O.V. | Tells the story with the first person pronoun, "I," and is a character in the story. This narrator can be the protagonist, a secondary character, or an observing character. | 38 | |
| 7142817954 | Second Person P.O.V. | Tells the story as if the narrator was talking directly to the audience, using second person pronouns "you," "your" | 39 | |
| 7142819835 | Third Person P.O.V. | Relates the events with the third person pronouns, "he," "she," and "it," as if the narrator is not involved in any of the story. 1. The narrator may know the thoughts and feelings of the characters (third person omniscient) 2. or the narrator may only know what can be literally observed (third person objective) | 40 | |
| 7142822020 | Polysyndeton | Using many conjunctions, usually to add emphasis or create an overwhelming affect. Ex: "It's got everything from Cocoa and the graphics and it's got core animation built in and it's got the audio and video that OSX is famous for. It's got all the stuff we want." - From Steve Jobs Keynote Address, Macworld 2007 | 41 | |
| 7142822050 | Prose | A generic term to reference any writing that is non-poetry; includes both fiction and nonfiction | 42 | |
| 7142823306 | Refutation | A generic term to reference any writing that is non-poetry; includes both fiction and nonfiction | 43 | |
| 7142823396 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 44 | |
| 7142826306 | Rhetoric | The principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 45 | |
| 7142827673 | "Rule of Three" | a writing principle that suggests that ideas feel more complete and easier to understand when done in "threes" versus another number. (Basically, things should happen in "threes".) This can be on a "macro" level with the whole text or "micro" level, in individual sentences. Ex: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence Ex: The fire safety motto: Stop, drop, and roll. NB: While "Rule of Three" does not have to follow a particular structure, there are 2 general structures of effective "Rule of Three" usage: a. Establish conflict, build conflict, resolve conflict - This structure deals with the Rule of Three in the "big picture" of a work. The first object will create/establish the conflict in the work, the second will continue it, and the third resolve or fix it. Ex: In "The Three Little Pigs" - The wolf tries to knock the first house down and succeeds, causing the scared pig resident to run to his brother's house (establish conflict), moves to the next and succeeds, causing both pigs to go to the third house (continuing the conflict), but he can't knock down the third house and the pigs win (resolve conflict) b. Similar, similar, different - the first two elements are similar to each other and the third is different Ex: In "the Three Little Pigs" - The wolf knocks down the first two houses (similar) but fails on the third (different) Ex: "We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again." - Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech (pick up and dust off are similar to "getting up", "begin again" is more active and forward thinking so it's different.) | 46 | |
| 7142827704 | Sarcasm | Involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. | 47 | |
| 7142828931 | Scheme | Any figure of speech that deals with word order, syntax, letters, and sounds, rather than the meaning of words. Ex: parallelism, asyndeton, assonance, repetition, epistrophe, anaphora NB: A pneumonic device to help you remember trope vs. scheme: You need to TRy to figure out a TRope, because they're not literal. A Scheme deals more with Sounds and Syntax. | 48 | |
| 7142830222 | Semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. | 49 | |
| 7142829785 | Style | An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. Style can evaluate a single author's choices or the choices of authors during a particular period (ie, the Victorian style). | 50 | |
| 7142830253 | Syllogism | A deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises (the first one called "major" and the second called "minor") that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion if each of the two premises is valid. Ex: A frequently cited example proceeds as follows: • major premise: All men are mortal. • minor premise: Socrates is a man. • conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is a mortal. NB: Similar to the math commutative property. (If A, B, and C are true, then if A=B and B=C, then A=C.) | 51 | |
| 7142831100 | Symbol/Symbolism | An object that represents itself and stands for something else. Usually a symbol is something concrete--such as an object, action, character, or scene--that represents something more abstract. Ex: sunlight can symbolize happiness. Ex: In Fahrenheit 451, books symbolize knowledge and free thinking. | 52 | |
| 7142836625 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole or, occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part. Ex: "Wheels" can refer to a whole vehicle. "Hired hands" can be used to refer to workmen. | 53 | |
| 7142836626 | Syntax | The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is similar to diction, but you can differentiate them by thinking of syntax as the groups of words, while diction refers to the individual words. | 54 | |
| 7142837488 | Thesis | In expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or position. | 55 | |
| 7142897610 | Tone | The author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both. Ex: Some words describing tone are playful, serious, businesslike, sarcastic, humorous, formal, ornate, sardonic, and somber. | 56 | |
| 7142897611 | Trope | Any figure of speech in which words are used in ways different from their literal meanings; usually there is a shift from the literal meaning of the word to a non-literal meaning. Ex: Common types of tropes include: metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, hyperbole, litotes, irony, oxymoron, onomatopoeia, etc. NB: A pneumonic device to help you remember trope vs. scheme: You need to TRy to figure out a TRope, because they're not literal. A Scheme deals more with Sounds and Syntax. | 57 | |
| 7142899254 | Understatement | The ironic minimizing of fact, presenting something as less significant than it is. Ex: The valedictorian of a school saying he is "a little smart." | 58 | |
| 7142898694 | Wit | Intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. A witty statement is humorous, while suggesting the speaker's verbal power in creating ingenious and perceptive remarks. | 59 |
