Terms : Hide Images
| 6266005841 | adage | A saying that becomes widely accepted as truth over time. Usually observances of life and behaviour that express a general truth. Ex: "A penny saved is a penny earned." | 0 | |
| 6266005845 | ambiguity | A vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation. | 1 | |
| 6266005846 | anachronism | A person, scene, event, or other element in literature that fails to correspond with the time/era in which the work is set. | 2 | |
| 6266005849 | antithesis | A rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect. | 3 | |
| 6266005850 | aphorism | A statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner. The term is often applied to philosophical, moral and literary principles. | 4 | |
| 6266005851 | Apollonian | In contrast to Dionysian, it refers to the most noble, godlike qualities of human nature and behaviour. | 5 | |
| 6266005853 | archetype | A character, action or situation which represents or reflects a commonly held or universal pattern, such as human nature. | 6 | |
| 6266005855 | ballad | A simple narrative verse that tells a story that is sung or recited; a long narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme, typically has a folksy quality | 7 | |
| 6266005857 | Bildungsroman | A special kind of novel that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of its main character from his or her youth to adulthood. Generally, such a novel starts with a loss or a tragedy that disturbs the main character emotionally. He or she leaves on a journey to fill that vacuum. | 8 | |
| 6266005858 | blank verse | Poetry written in iambic pentameter, the primary meter used in English poetry and the works of Shakespeare and Milton; its lines generally do not rhyme. | 9 | |
| 6266005859 | bombast | Inflated, pretentious language used for trivial subjects. | 10 | |
| 6266005860 | cacophony | The use of words with sharp, harsh, hissing and unmelodious sounds, primarily those of consonants, to achieve the desired results. Ex: "I detest war because cause of war is always trivial." | 11 | |
| 6266005861 | caesura | It involves creating a fracture within a sentence, where the two separate parts are distinguishable from one another yet intrinsically linked; the purpose is to create a dramatic pause. Ex: "Mozart- oh, how your music makes me soar!" | 12 | |
| 6266005862 | canon | The works most widely read, studied, and considered most important in national literature or in a specific literary period. | 13 | |
| 6266005863 | caricature | A grotesque likeness of striking qualities in persons and things; a portrait that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 14 | |
| 6266005864 | catharsis | A cleansing of the spirit brought about by the pity and terror of a dramatic tragedy. | 15 | |
| 6266005865 | classicism | Deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity and restraint. | 16 | |
| 6266005867 | anticlimax | This occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect; it is frequently comic in effect. | 17 | |
| 6266005869 | aside | A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage. | 18 | |
| 6266005872 | cadence | the beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense | 19 | |
| 6266005873 | canto | is a divider in long poems, much like chapters in a novel | 20 | |
| 6266005874 | coinage | a.k.a. neologism, inventing a word | 21 | |
| 6266005875 | colloquialism | this is a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "schoolbook" English | 22 | |
| 6266005876 | controlling image | when an image dominates and shapes the entire work | 23 | |
| 6266005877 | metaphysical conceit | a type of conceit that occurs only in metaphysical poetry | 24 | |
| 6266005879 | consonance | the repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a group of words or a line of poetry | 25 | |
| 6266005880 | couplet | a pair of lines that end in rhyme | 26 | |
| 6266005881 | heroic couplet | two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter are called this | 27 | |
| 6266005882 | denotation | the literal, dictionary definition of a word | 28 | |
| 6266005883 | denouement | the resolution that occurs at the end of a play or work or fiction | 29 | |
| 6266005884 | Dionysian | as distinguished from Apollonian, the word refers to sensual, pleasure seeking impulses | 30 | |
| 6266005887 | dirge | a song for the dead, its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy | 31 | |
| 6266005888 | dissonance | the grating of incompatible sounds | 32 | |
| 6266005889 | doggerel | crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme | 33 | |
| 6266005891 | dramatic monologue | when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience | 34 | |
| 6266005892 | elegy | a poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing/death of something/someone of value | 35 | |
| 6266005893 | elements | the basic techniques of each genre of literature. IN SHORT STORY: characters, irony, theme, symbol, plot, setting. IN POETRY: figurative language, symbol, imagery, rhythm, rhyme. IN DRAMA: conflict, characters, climax, conclusion, exposition, rising action, falling action, props. IN NONFICTION: argument, evidence, reason, appeals, fallacies, thesis. | 36 | |
| 6266005894 | ellipsis | three periods (...) indicating the omission of words in a thought or quotation | 37 | |
| 6266005895 | empathy | a feeling of association or identification with an object/person | 38 | |
| 6266005896 | end stopped | a term that describes a line of poetry that ends with a natural pause often indicated by a mark of punctuation | 39 | |
| 6266005897 | enjambment | the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause | 40 | |
| 6266005900 | epitaph | lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. usually a line or handful of lines, often serious or religious, but sometimes witty and even irreverent | 41 | |
| 6266005901 | epigram | a concise but ingenious, witty and thoughtful statement | 42 | |
| 6266005902 | euphony | when sounds blend harmoniously; pleasing, harmonious sounds | 43 | |
| 6266005903 | epithet | an adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality of a person or thing | 44 | |
| 6266005904 | eponymous | a term for the title character of a work of literature | 45 | |
| 6266005909 | fable | a short tale often featuring nonhuman character that act as people whose actions enable the author to make observations or draw useful lessons about human behavior. i.e Orwell's "Animal Farm" | 46 | |
| 6266005911 | fantasy | a story containing unreal, imaginary features | 47 | |
| 6266005912 | farce | a comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose | 48 | |
| 6266005917 | foreshadowing | an event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later | 49 | |
| 6266005918 | foot | the basic rhythmic unit of a line in poetry. it is formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed | 50 | |
| 6266005920 | free verse | a kind of poetry without rhymed lines, rhythm or fixed metrical feet | 51 | |
| 6266005923 | harangue | a forceful sermon, lecture, or tirade | 52 | |
| 6266005929 | idyll | a lyric poem or passage that describes a kind of ideal life or place | 53 | |
| 6266005931 | inversion | switching customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. when done badly it can give a stilted, artificial look-at-me-I'm-poetry feel to the verse. type of syntax | 54 | |
| 6266005932 | irony | a mode of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated, often implying ridicule or light sarcasm | 55 | |
| 6266005933 | invective | a direct verbal assault; a denunciation. i.e. Candide | 56 | |
| 6266005934 | kenning | a device employed in Anglo-Saxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by one of its functions/qualities, as in "ring-giver" for king and "whale-road" for ocean | 57 | |
| 6266005935 | lament | a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss | 58 | |
| 6266005936 | lampoon | a satire | 59 | |
| 6266005937 | light verse | a variety of poetry meant to entertain or amuse, but sometimes with a satirical thrust | 60 | |
| 6266005938 | loose sentence | a sentence that is complete before its end. follows customary word order of English sentences i.e. subject-verb-object | 61 | |
| 6266005939 | periodic sentence | a sentence not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase; sentence that departs from the usual word order of English sentences by expressing its main thought only at the end | 62 | |
| 6266005941 | melodrama | a form of overly-dramatic theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure. | 63 | |
| 6266005942 | litotes | a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity | 64 | |
| 6266005943 | maxim | a saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or truth | 65 | |
| 6266005945 | metaphysical poetry | the work of poets, particularly those of 17th c., that uses elaborate conceits, is highly intellectual, and expresses the complexities of love and life | 66 | |
| 6266005946 | meter | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables found in poetry | 67 | |
| 6266005947 | metonymy | a figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to represent something else with which it is associated. e.g. "The White House says..." | 68 | |
| 6266005949 | montage | a quick succession of images/impressions used to express an idea | 69 | |
| 6266005951 | nemesis | the protagonist's archenemy or supreme and persistent difficulty | 70 | |
| 6266005952 | objectivity | this treatment of a subject matter is an impersonal/outside view of events | 71 | |
| 6266005953 | subjectivity | this treatment of a subject matter uses the interior/personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional responses | 72 | |
| 6266005955 | moral | a brief and often simplistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature | 73 | |
| 6266005956 | motif | a phrase, idea, event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in a work of literature. | 74 | |
| 6266005957 | muse | one of the ancient Greek goddesses presiding over the arts. the imaginary source of inspiration for an artist or writer | 75 | |
| 6266005960 | naturalism | a term often used as a synonym for "realism"; also a view of experiences that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic | 76 | |
| 6266005961 | non sequitur | a statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before | 77 | |
| 6266005962 | novel of manners | a novel focusing on and describing the social customs and habits of a particular social group | 78 | |
| 6266005963 | ode | a lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 79 | |
| 6266005965 | oxymoron | a phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. juxtaposition of contradictory element to create a paradoxical effect | 80 | |
| 6266005966 | opposition | one of the most useful concepts in analyzing literature. it means that you have a pair of elements that contrast sharply. | 81 | |
| 6266005967 | ottava rima | an eight-line rhyming stanza of a poem | 82 | |
| 6266005968 | parable | like a fable or an allegory, it's a story that instructs; a story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived | 83 | |
| 6266005973 | pastoral | a work of literature dealing with rural life | 84 | |
| 6266005974 | pathetic fallacy | faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects | 85 | |
| 6266005976 | pentameter | a verse with five poetic feet per line | 86 | |
| 6266005977 | persona | the role/facade that a character assumes or depicts to a reader, viewer, or the world at large; the narrator in a non-first-person novel | 87 | |
| 6266005980 | picaresque novel | an episodic novel about a roguelike wanderer who lives off his wits. e.g. "Don Quixote", "Moll Flanders" | 88 | |
| 6266005981 | plaint | a poem or speech expressing sorrow | 89 | |
| 6266005983 | omniscient narrator | 3rd person narrator who sees like God into each character's mind and understands all the action going on. | 90 | |
| 6266005984 | limited omniscient narrator | 3rd person narrator who generally reports only what one character (usually the main) sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character. | 91 | |
| 6266005987 | prosody | the grammar of meter and rhythm in poetry | 92 | |
| 6266005989 | prelude | an introductory poem to a longer work of verse | 93 | |
| 6266005990 | pun | the usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 94 | |
| 6266005991 | pseudonym | also called "pen name", a false name or alias used by writers. i.e Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) George Orwell (Eric Blair) | 95 | |
| 6266005992 | quatrian | a four-line poem or a four-line unit of a longer poem | 96 | |
| 6266005994 | requiem | a song of prayer for the dead | 97 | |
| 6266005998 | rhapsody | an intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise | 98 | |
| 6266006002 | romance | an extended narrative about improbable events and extraordinary people in exotic places | 99 | |
| 6266006008 | sentiment | a synonym for "view" or "feeling"; also refined and tender emotion in literature | 100 | |
| 6266006009 | scansion | the act of determining the meter of a poetic line. | 101 | |
| 6266006011 | soliloquy | a speech spoken by a character alone on stage. meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's THOUGHTS. unlike an aside, it is not meant to imply that the actor acknowledges the audience's presence | 102 | |
| 6266006013 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind, e.g. Ernest Hemingway | 103 | |
| 6266006014 | stock characters | standard or cliched character types: the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl, etc. | 104 | |
| 6266006017 | subplot | a subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or play, usually connected to the main plot | 105 | |
| 6266006021 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part | 106 | |
| 6266006025 | tragic flaw | in a tragedy, this is the weakness of a character in an otherwise good individual that ultimately leads to his demise | 107 | |
| 6266006027 | travesty | a grotesque parody | 108 | |
| 6266006028 | truism | a way-too-obvious truth | 109 | |
| 6266006029 | utopia | an idealized place. imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity and peace. Sir Thomas More came up with this idea. | 110 | |
| 6266006030 | verbal irony | a discrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words | 111 | |
| 6266006032 | verisimilitude | similar to the truth; the quality of realism in a work that persuades readers that they are getting a vision of life as it is | 112 | |
| 6266006033 | versification | the structural form of a line of verse as revealed by the number of feet it contains. i.e. monometer = 1 foot; tetrameter = 4 feet; pentameter = 5 feet, etc. | 113 | |
| 6266006034 | villanelle | a French verse form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous but consisting of 19 lines and a prescribed pattern of rhymes | 114 | |
| 6266006035 | voice | the real or assumed personality used by a writer or speaker. a verb is in the active voice when it expresses an action performed by its subject. a verb is in the passive voice when it expresses an action performed upon its subject or when the subject is the result of the action. Active: The crew raked the leaves. Passive: The leaves were raked by the crew. | 115 | |
| 6266006036 | wit | the quickness of intellect and the power and talent for saying brilliant things that surprise and delight by their unexpectedness; the power to comment subtly and pointedly on the foibles of the passing scene | 116 | |
| 6266006037 | zeugma | the use of a word to modify two or more words, but used for different meanings. "He close the door and his heart on his lost love." | 117 | |
| 6266006038 | anastrophe | inversion of the natural or usual word order | 118 | |
| 6266006040 | epistrophe | repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses "When we first came we were very many and you were very few. Now you are many and we are getting very few." | 119 | |
| 6266006041 | epanalepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. "Blood hat bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows" | 120 | |
| 6266006042 | anadiplosis | repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. "The crime was common, common be the pain." | 121 | |
| 6266006043 | antimetabole | repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." | 122 | |
| 6266006044 | chiasmus | reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses. "Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys." | 123 | |
| 6266006045 | polyptoton | repetition of words derived from the same root. "But in this desert country they may see the land being rendered USELESS by OVERUSE." | 124 | |
| 6266006046 | antanaclasis | repetition of a word in two different senses. "Your argument is sound, nothing but sound." | 125 | |
| 6266006047 | paronomasia | use of words alike in sound but different in meaning. "ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a GRAVE man." | 126 | |
| 6266006048 | syllepsis | the use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies/governs. "The ink, like our pig, keeps running out of the pen." | 127 | |
| 6266006049 | anthimeria | the substitution of one part of speech for another "I'll UNHAIR they head." | 128 | |
| 6266006050 | periphrasis | substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name. "They do not escape JIM CROW; they merely encounter another, not less deadly variety." | 129 | |
| 6266006052 | dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region/group of people | 130 | |
| 6266006053 | epiphany | in a literary work, a moment of sudden insight/revelation that a character experiences | 131 |
