Terms : Hide Images
| 12243751 | abstract words | words used to discuss intangible qualities like good and evil | |
| 12243752 | accent | the stressed portion of a word in poetry | |
| 12243753 | ad hominem argument | argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason; may attack the messenger rather than the message | |
| 12243754 | aesthetic | appealing to the senses (adj.), a coherent sense of taste (n.), the study of beauty (n.) | |
| 12243755 | aestheticism | devotion to the idea of beauty in art | |
| 12243756 | aleatory | an alogical poem seems composed by chance | |
| 12243757 | allegory | a story in which each aspect has symbolic meaning outside the story | |
| 12243758 | alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds | |
| 12243759 | allusion | reference to a famous work or figure outside the poem | |
| 12243760 | amplification | repeating a word, and adding more modifiers each time | |
| 12243761 | anachronism | an object misplaced in time | |
| 12243762 | anacoluthon | finishing a sentence with different grammatical structure from that with which it began | |
| 12243763 | analogy | a comparison, involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship | |
| 12243764 | anapestic | metrical measurement of two unstressed syllables and then one stressed one (u u ') | |
| 12243765 | anaphora | repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses | |
| 12243766 | anecdote | a short story | |
| 12243767 | antagonist | one that contends with or opposes another | |
| 12243768 | antecedent | a word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to | |
| 12243769 | anthropomorphism | inanimate objects are given human characteristics, but no human shape | |
| 12243770 | anticlimax | an action produces far smaller results than one had led to expect, comic | |
| 12243771 | antihero | a protagonist who is markedly unheroic | |
| 12243772 | antimetabole | reversing the order of repeated words/clauses to intensify the sentence, present alternatives, or show contrast | |
| 12243773 | antiphrasis | one word irony (calling a beautiful girl "ugly) | |
| 12243774 | antistrophe | repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive lines | |
| 12243775 | antithesis | juxtaposition of opposites, e.g., heaven and hell | |
| 12243776 | aphorism | a short and witty saying | |
| 12243777 | apocopated rhyme | a cut-off rhyme; last syllable of one of the rhymes is missing (pain/gainless) | |
| 12243778 | apologia | a defense of one's opinions, actions, or life (Think Socrates' The Apology) | |
| 12243779 | apologue | moral fable using animals to comment on human condition | |
| 12243780 | aporia | expression of doubt about conclusions | |
| 12243781 | aposiopesis | stopping abruptly and leaving statement unfinished | |
| 12243782 | apostrophe | speech is directed to a nonhuman object or one that is not present | |
| 12243783 | appositive | a noun or phrase placed next to another noun, for the purpose of further describing | |
| 12243784 | archaism | use of deliberately old-fashioned diction | |
| 12243785 | archetype | the original pattern or model of which all things of a similar nature are copies | |
| 12243786 | ars poetica | a poem written on the subject of poetic art, usually explaining poet's reasons for writing | |
| 12243787 | aside | a speech made by an actor to the audience as though momentarily stepping outside the action on stage | |
| 12243788 | assonance | the repeated use of internal vowel sounds | |
| 12243789 | atmosphere | the emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | |
| 12243790 | aubade | a love song or poem greeting the dawn | |
| 12243791 | ballad | a long narrative poem in regular meter and rhyme | |
| 12243792 | bathos | writing that strains for grandeur it can't support | |
| 12243793 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | |
| 12243794 | bildungsroman | a novel of self-development or personal formation | |
| 12243795 | bombast | pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language | |
| 12243796 | burlesque | broad parody that takes on a specific style and makes fun of it | |
| 12243797 | cacophony | using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds | |
| 12243798 | cadence | the beat or rhythm of poetry | |
| 12243799 | caesura | a pause in a line of poetry (indicated or not) | |
| 12243800 | camera eye narrator | third-person narrator who describes what would be visible to a camera; objective | |
| 12243801 | canto | a section division in a long work of poetry | |
| 12243802 | caricature | a portrait that exaggerates a facet of personality | |
| 12243803 | carpe diem | the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future | |
| 12243804 | catalogue | a complete enumeration of items, arranged systematically, with descriptive details | |
| 12243805 | catharsis | cleansing of emotion an audience member experiences, having lived through the experiences on stage | |
| 12243806 | Chaucerian stanza | 7 lines, rhyme ababbcc | |
| 12243807 | chorus | the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it | |
| 12243808 | classicism | a tendency to reflect he principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome | |
| 12243809 | climax | the point of highest tension, or a major turning point in a play | |
| 12243810 | coinage | a new word, usually invented on the spot | |
| 12243811 | colloquialism | a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English | |
| 12243812 | conceit | an extended metaphor, developed and expanded upon over several lines | |
| 12243813 | concrete poetry | a poem wherein shape of words and lines conveys the meaning | |
| 12243814 | confessional poetry | makes frank, explicit use of incidents in the poet's life | |
| 12243815 | connotation | the association with a word; the word suggests/implies meaning beyond the literal | |
| 12243816 | consonance | repetition of consonant sounds within words | |
| 12243817 | continuous form | a poem in which lines follow each other without stanza breaks | |
| 12243818 | couplet | a pair of lines ending in rhyme | |
| 12243819 | dactylic | a metrical measurement of one accented syllable and two unaccented (' u u) | |
| 12243820 | decorum | the attitude one should display according to his social/economic status | |
| 12243821 | denotation | a word's literal meaning | |
| 12243822 | denoument | conclusion, the outcome of a plot | |
| 12243823 | determinism | belief that man is fated to defeat under indifferent natural forces; emphasizes vanity of free will | |
| 12243824 | deus ex machina | "god from the machine" - conflicts quickly resolved at end of last act, often by sudden introduction of a power who solves all | |
| 12243825 | diacope | repetition of words before and after syntactical break (We will do it, I tell you, we will do it.) | |
| 12243826 | dialect | the characteristic speech of a particular region or group | |
| 12243827 | diction | the author's choice of words | |
| 12243828 | didactic | primary purpose is to teach | |
| 12243829 | dirge | a song for the dead | |
| 12243830 | dissonance | the grating of incompatible sounds | |
| 12243831 | doggerel | crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme | |
| 12243832 | dramatic monologue | single speaker in literature talks to silent audience | |
| 12243833 | dramatic poem | a poem that has a conflict | |
| 12243834 | dualistic | two-valued, e.g., good/evil | |
| 12243835 | dystopia | opposite of utopia, society where social and technological advances have served to aid corruption | |
| 12243836 | elegy | poem on death or mortality | |
| 12243837 | encomium | a laudatory poem for a legendary or real person | |
| 12243838 | enjambment | continuation of syntax over line break | |
| 12243839 | enumeratio | listing parts, cause, effect, for added emphasis | |
| 12243840 | epic | a long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style; often describes glorious or profound subject | |
| 12243841 | epigram | a short poem intended to impart wisdom | |
| 12243842 | epigraph | a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses what will be said | |
| 12243843 | epiphany | a sudden realization or comprehension of the meaning of something | |
| 12243844 | epistle | a letter directed or sent to a group of people | |
| 12243845 | epistrophe | repeat of same word(s) at the end of sentences | |
| 12243846 | epitaph | lines that commemorate the dead at the burial place | |
| 12243847 | epithalamium | a poem that is written for the bride; celebration of a wedding | |
| 12243848 | epithet | a word preceding or following a name which serves to describe (fleet-footed Achilles or wine-dark sea) | |
| 12243849 | epizeuxis | repetition of the same word for emphasis | |
| 12243850 | eponym | substituting the name of a famous person for a description (He's a real Einstein) | |
| 12243851 | eulogy | formal expression of praise, usually given at a funeral | |
| 12243852 | euphemism | a word that takes the place of a more harsh or inappropriate word (physically challenged rather than crippled) | |
| 12243853 | euphony | sounds blending harmoniously | |
| 12243854 | euphuism | elegant Victorian prose style (filled with alliteration and similes) | |
| 12243855 | exemplum | citing an example | |
| 12243856 | expletive | word interrupting syntax to give emphasis to words around it | |
| 12243857 | expressionism | emphasizes the life of the mind and feelings rather than the realistic external details of everyday life | |
| 12243858 | eye of the poem | the central focus of the poem | |
| 12243859 | eye rhyme | words that look similar, but pronounced differently (wind/find) | |
| 12243860 | falling rhyme | feminine rhyme; ending with unaccented last syllable | |
| 12243861 | farce | a comedy of unlikely, but possible situations | |
| 12243862 | feminine rhyme | falling rhyme; ending with unaccented last syllable | |
| 12243863 | figurative image | representation of one thing by another | |
| 12243864 | first person narrator | character in the story who tells the tale from his/her point of view | |
| 12243865 | flashback | scene that interrupts the action to show an event that happened earlier | |
| 12243866 | foil | a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character | |
| 12243867 | foot | basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry, formed by two or three syllables, stressed or not | |
| 12243868 | foreshadowing | an event or statement that, in miniature, suggests a larger event that comes later | |
| 12243869 | free verse | poetry without regular rhyme or meter | |
| 12243870 | genre | a sub-category of literature; categorizes literature by types | |
| 12243871 | gothic | use of eerie themes and images (shrieking women, ghosts) | |
| 12243872 | haiku | Japanese poetry with 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables | |
| 12243873 | half rhyme | words that almost rhyme; slant rhyme (dizzy/easy) | |
| 12243874 | hamartia | tragic flaw or error which brings down the protagonist of a tragedy | |
| 12243875 | Harlem Renaissance | flowering of African American art and music in the 1920s; center was in Harlem, New York | |
| 12243876 | head rhyme | another word for alliteration | |
| 12243877 | heptameter | poem of seven metrical feet | |
| 12243878 | heroic couplet | a rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter | |
| 12243879 | hexameter | poetic form of six metrical feet | |
| 12243880 | homonyms | words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings (sale/sail) | |
| 12243881 | hubris | excessive pride/ambition which leads to character's downfall | |
| 12243882 | hyperbaton | departure from normal word order; a form of inversion (a personality indescribable) | |
| 12243883 | hyperbole | exaggeration or deliberate overstatement | |
| 12243884 | hypophora | raising a question then proceeding to answer it | |
| 12243885 | iambic | a metrical foot with an unstressed first syllable and a stressed second syllable | |
| 12243886 | in media res | a piece of writing that begins in the middle of the action | |
| 12243887 | incongruity | the joining of opposites to create an unexpected situation | |
| 12243888 | interior monologue | recording of mental talk in character's head | |
| 12243889 | invective | speech/writing that abuses, denounces, attacks | |
| 12243890 | inversion | switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase | |
| 12243891 | irony | events turn out exactly the opposite of how they might be expected; saying the opposite of what is meant | |
| 12243892 | lament | a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or some intense loss | |
| 12243893 | lampoon | a satire | |
| 12243894 | linked rhyme | first syllable of a line echoes the last syllable of the previous line (on the rooftop/Stops the light of the cop) | |
| 12243895 | literal image | concrete replication in words of an object or experience | |
| 12243896 | litotes | type of understatement achieved by denying the opposite (Heat waves are not rare in summer.) | |
| 12243897 | local color | use of specific details describing dialect, dress, customs, and scenery associated with a particular region | |
| 12243898 | loose sentence | a sentence complete before its end (Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating laugh.) | |
| 12243899 | lyric | poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world | |
| 12243900 | madrigal | a short lyric on love or pastoral themes | |
| 12243901 | masculine rhyme | rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable | |
| 13036349 | melodrama | cheesy theater; often emphasizes plot and action over character development | |
| 13036350 | metabasis | brief summary of what has been said and what will follow | |
| 13036351 | metanoia | modifies a statement by recalling it and expressing it in a better way (Max is the best of all bichons, nay of all dogs.) | |
| 13036352 | metaphor | comparison or analogy that states that one thing IS another | |
| 13036353 | meter | rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up feet | |
| 13036354 | metonymy | a single characteristic used to describe something outside itself (Victory crossed the finish line) | |
| 13036355 | mixed metaphor | combination of incompatible comparisons; trying to compare objects too dissimilar to carry off a comparison | |
| 13036356 | mood | prevailing atmosphere created by language, tone, setting | |
| 13036357 | motif | a recurring feature (e.g., name, image, phrase) in a work of literature | |
| 13036358 | narrative | a story poem | |
| 13036359 | naturalism | emphasis on man as animal, behaving strictly according to dictates of nature; emphasizes lack of free will; emphasizes sordid | |
| 13036360 | neo-classicism | sees man as flawed and his institutions are flawed. Nature is neither good nor evil. Man needs to seek harmony with what is. | |
| 13036361 | neologism | coinage; forming a new word, usually spontaneously | |
| 13036362 | nonce | open form poem (shape is unique to poem) written for a special occasion | |
| 13036815 | novel of manners | novel describing social habits/customs of a social group | |
| 13036816 | octave | eight line stanza | |
| 13036817 | ode | long poem on a serious subject that develops its theme with dignified language, intended to be sung | |
| 13036818 | omniscient narrator | a third-person narrator who sees into character's heads | |
| 13036819 | onomatopoeia | words that sound like what they mean | |
| 13036820 | opposition | a pair of elements that contrast sharply | |
| 13036821 | oxymoron | a phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction (sweet vinegar) | |
| 13036822 | palinode | a poem retracting a regretted derogatory statement | |
| 13036823 | parable | a story told in prose or verse that illustrates a religious or ethical idea | |
| 13036824 | paradigm | a formal plan or sequence of changes which acts as a model | |
| 13036825 | paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, but is not | |
| 13036826 | parallelism | repeated syntactical similarities used for effect | |
| 13036827 | parenthetical | a phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence | |
| 13036828 | parody | exaggerating a specific work so that it appears ridiculous | |
| 13036829 | pastoral | a poem set in tranquil nature (ideally around shepherds) | |
| 13036830 | pathetic fallacy | a cliched personification of nature (rain weeps) | |
| 13036831 | pentameter | a line of verse containing five metrical feet | |
| 13036832 | periodic sentence | a sentence that is grammatically incomplete until its final phrase (Despite Barbara's irritation, she cut Jack's hair.) | |
| 13036833 | persona | the character created by the author to narrate | |
| 13036834 | personification | inanimate objects or animals take on human shape | |
| 13036835 | Petrarchan sonnet | 14 lines/abba abba cde cde | |
| 13036836 | picaresque novel | novel about a picara or rogue and vagabond | |
| 13036837 | prelude | an introductory poem to a longer work of verse | |
| 13036838 | private symbol | an author's personal symbol that the reader understands through context | |
| 13036839 | protagonist | the main character of a novel or play | |
| 13036840 | public voice | a writer who is speaking for all people | |
| 13036841 | pun | humorous use of a word in a way to suggest two or more meanings | |
| 13036842 | pure rhyme | initial sounds of a word differ, and rest of the sound is identical (sing/wing) | |
| 13036843 | pyrrhic | a metrical foot with two unstressed syllables | |
| 13036844 | quatrain | four-line stanza | |
| 13036845 | quintet | five lines of poetry with no prescribed rhyme | |
| 13036846 | realism | nature is benign and there is optimism that man can rise above his own animal nature if he wills to | |
| 13036847 | refrain | a line or a set of lines repeated several times in a poem | |
| 13036848 | requiem | a song of prayer for the dead | |
| 13036849 | rhapsody | passionate verse or section of verse, usually addressing love or praise | |
| 13037069 | rhetorical question | a question that suggests an answer, and therefore doesn't need to be answered | |
| 13037070 | rhetorical shift | a change in tone or attitude; key words include "but," "however," "even though," "although," "yet" | |
| 13037071 | rhyme royal | ababbcc: sounds are staggered (abab) in first lines, then closely linked (bcc). First used by Chaucer. | |
| 13037072 | ridicule | words intended to belittle and generate contempt/laughter | |
| 13037073 | rising rhyme | masculine rhyme; rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable | |
| 13037074 | romanticism | man is good by institutions and their imposed orders are evil; nature is good; man can live in harmony with nature. | |
| 13037075 | saga | generally long novels, often about several generations | |
| 13037076 | sarcasm | ridicule expressed in ironic praise | |
| 13037077 | satire | work in which human vice or folly is attacked with irony, derision, or wit | |
| 13037078 | scansion | analysis of a poem's rhythm and meter | |
| 13037079 | second intensity | weak poems that could have been better | |
| 13037080 | septet | 7 lines of poetry | |
| 13037081 | sestet | a stanza or poem of six lines, e.g., the last six lines of a sonnet | |
| 13037082 | sestina | 6 six-line stanzas ending with tercet; last words of each line in 1st stanza are repeated as last words in next stanza | |
| 13037083 | Shakespearean sonnet | 14 lines in iambic pentameter, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG | |
| 13037084 | simile | comparison using "as" or "like" | |
| 13037085 | slant rhyme | half rhyme (home/bone) | |
| 13037086 | soliloquy | speech spoken by single character on stage | |
| 13037087 | sonnet | 14 rhymed lines of verse in iambic pentameter | |
| 13037088 | Spenserian sonnet | 14 lines: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE | |
| 13037089 | spondee | a metrical foot with two stressed syllables (' ') | |
| 13037090 | stanza | a unit within a longer poem | |
| 13037091 | stock character | standard or cliched character types | |
| 13037092 | stream of consciousness | reader sees inside main character's head and is privy to all character's conscious, random thoughts | |
| 13037478 | subjunctive | setting up a hypothetical situation | |
| 13037479 | surrealism | allowing the subconscious or dream-like imagery to guide the poem; leaps from image to image | |
| 13037480 | suspension of disbelief | demand of audience to accept stage limitations and believe | |
| 13037481 | syllogism | deductive reasoning | |
| 13037482 | synecdoche | a type of metaphor wherein a part stands for the whole (He asked for her hand in marriage.) | |
| 13037483 | synesthesia | a mixing of senses (a blue smell) | |
| 13037484 | tautology | a repetition so redundant as to be frozen with obvious foolishness | |
| 13037485 | technique | styles, devices, and diction used by the author | |
| 13037486 | tetrameter | a poetic line with four metrical feet | |
| 13037487 | texture of poem | the sound of the poetic words in a piece | |
| 13037488 | theme | general idea or insight about life that the writer wishes to convey | |
| 13037489 | tone | the attitude of the poet | |
| 13037490 | transcendentalism | holds that basic truths can be reached through intuition; transcends reason; the divine is in nature and people | |
| 13037491 | travesty | grotesque parody | |
| 13037492 | trochaic | a metrical measurement of one stressed syllable and one unstressed (' u) | |
| 13037493 | trope | any figurative language | |
| 13037494 | truism | a way-too obvious truth | |
| 13037495 | understatement | ironic minimalizing of fact | |
| 13037496 | unreliable narrator | first person narrator is crazy, very young, or not entirely credible | |
| 13037497 | utopia | an idealized place | |
| 13037498 | verisimilitude | how precisely the characters/events in fiction match reality | |
| 13037499 | vernacular | everyday spoken language of people in a particular region | |
| 13037500 | villanelle | 19 lines: 5 tercets (aba) and a quatrain (abaa) | |
| 13037501 | voice | associated with the basic vision of a writer, her general attitude toward the world | |
| 13037502 | weak specification | imprecise, abstract language | |
| 13037503 | wit | words that are intellectually amusing; delight that surprises | |
| 13037504 | zeugma | word modifies two or more words for different meanings (The dance floor was square as was his personality.) |
