Terms : Hide Images
| 6266065143 | 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 | |
| 6266065147 | ambiguity | A vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation. | 1 | |
| 6266065148 | 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 | |
| 6266065149 | analogy | A comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to something else that is quite different from it. It aims at explaining that idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar. | 3 | |
| 6266065151 | antithesis | A rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect. | 4 | |
| 6266065152 | 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. | 5 | |
| 6266065153 | Apollonian | In contrast to Dionysian, it refers to the most noble, godlike qualities of human nature and behaviour. | 6 | |
| 6266065154 | apostrophe | A figure of speech where the writer or speaker detaches himself from his present reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech. | 7 | |
| 6266065155 | archetype | A character, action or situation which represents or reflects a commonly held or universal pattern, such as human nature. | 8 | |
| 6266065156 | assonance | The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in a group of words or lines in poetry and prose. | 9 | |
| 6266065157 | 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 | 10 | |
| 6266065158 | bard | A poet or a performer in olden times who told heroic stories to musical accompaniment. | 11 | |
| 6266065159 | 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. | 12 | |
| 6266065160 | 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. | 13 | |
| 6266065161 | bombast | Inflated, pretentious language used for trivial subjects. | 14 | |
| 6266065162 | 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." | 15 | |
| 6266065163 | 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!" | 16 | |
| 6266065164 | canon | The works most widely read, studied, and considered most important in national literature or in a specific literary period. | 17 | |
| 6266065165 | caricature | A grotesque likeness of striking qualities in persons and things; a portrait that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 18 | |
| 6266065166 | catharsis | A cleansing of the spirit brought about by the pity and terror of a dramatic tragedy. | 19 | |
| 6266065167 | classicism | Deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity and restraint. | 20 | |
| 6266065168 | conceit | A figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors; it develops a comparison which is exceedingly unlikely but is, nonetheless, intellectually imaginative. | 21 | |
| 6266065169 | anticlimax | This occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect; it is frequently comic in effect. | 22 | |
| 6266065171 | 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. | 23 | |
| 6266065174 | cadence | the beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense | 24 | |
| 6266065175 | canto | is a divider in long poems, much like chapters in a novel | 25 | |
| 6266065176 | coinage | a.k.a. neologism, inventing a word | 26 | |
| 6266065177 | colloquialism | this is a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "schoolbook" English | 27 | |
| 6266065178 | controlling image | when an image dominates and shapes the entire work | 28 | |
| 6266065179 | metaphysical conceit | a type of conceit that occurs only in metaphysical poetry | 29 | |
| 6266065180 | connotation | the suggest or implied meaning of a word/phrase | 30 | |
| 6266065181 | consonance | the repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a group of words or a line of poetry | 31 | |
| 6266065182 | couplet | a pair of lines that end in rhyme | 32 | |
| 6266065183 | heroic couplet | two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter are called this | 33 | |
| 6266065184 | denotation | the literal, dictionary definition of a word | 34 | |
| 6266065185 | denouement | the resolution that occurs at the end of a play or work or fiction | 35 | |
| 6266065186 | Dionysian | as distinguished from Apollonian, the word refers to sensual, pleasure seeking impulses | 36 | |
| 6266065189 | dirge | a song for the dead, its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy | 37 | |
| 6266065190 | dissonance | the grating of incompatible sounds | 38 | |
| 6266065191 | doggerel | crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme | 39 | |
| 6266065192 | dramatic irony | when the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 40 | |
| 6266065194 | elegy | a poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing/death of something/someone of value | 41 | |
| 6266065195 | 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. | 42 | |
| 6266065196 | ellipsis | three periods (...) indicating the omission of words in a thought or quotation | 43 | |
| 6266065198 | end stopped | a term that describes a line of poetry that ends with a natural pause often indicated by a mark of punctuation | 44 | |
| 6266065199 | enjambment | the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause | 45 | |
| 6266065200 | epic | an extended narrative poem that tells of the adventures and exploits of a hero that is generally larger than life and is often considered a legendary figure | 46 | |
| 6266065201 | mock epic | a parody form that deals with mundane events and ironically treats them as worthy of epic poetry | 47 | |
| 6266065202 | 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 | 48 | |
| 6266065203 | epigram | a concise but ingenious, witty and thoughtful statement | 49 | |
| 6266065204 | euphony | when sounds blend harmoniously; pleasing, harmonious sounds | 50 | |
| 6266065205 | epithet | an adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality of a person or thing | 51 | |
| 6266065206 | eponymous | a term for the title character of a work of literature | 52 | |
| 6266065207 | euphemism | a mild or less negative usage for a harsh or blunt term | 53 | |
| 6266065212 | falling action | the action in a play or story that occurs after the climax and that leads to the conclusion and often to the resolution of the conflict | 54 | |
| 6266065216 | foil | a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast | 55 | |
| 6266065219 | foreshadowing | an event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later | 56 | |
| 6266065220 | 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 | 57 | |
| 6266065221 | frame | a structure that provides premise or setting for a narrative | 58 | |
| 6266065222 | free verse | a kind of poetry without rhymed lines, rhythm or fixed metrical feet | 59 | |
| 6266065225 | harangue | a forceful sermon, lecture, or tirade | 60 | |
| 6266065228 | humanism | a belief that emphasizes faith and optimism in human potential and creativity | 61 | |
| 6266065230 | in medias res | Latin for "in the midst of things"; a narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point | 62 | |
| 6266065231 | idyll | a lyric poem or passage that describes a kind of ideal life or place | 63 | |
| 6266065233 | 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 | 64 | |
| 6266065235 | invective | a direct verbal assault; a denunciation. i.e. Candide | 65 | |
| 6266065236 | 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 | 66 | |
| 6266065237 | lament | a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss | 67 | |
| 6266065238 | lampoon | a satire | 68 | |
| 6266065239 | light verse | a variety of poetry meant to entertain or amuse, but sometimes with a satirical thrust | 69 | |
| 6266065240 | loose sentence | a sentence that is complete before its end. follows customary word order of English sentences i.e. subject-verb-object | 70 | |
| 6266065241 | 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 | 71 | |
| 6266065242 | lyric | personal, reflective poetry that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about the subject; the word is used to describe tone, it refers to a sweet, emotional melodiousness | 72 | |
| 6266065244 | litotes | a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity | 73 | |
| 6266065245 | maxim | a saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or truth | 74 | |
| 6266065247 | 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 | 75 | |
| 6266065248 | meter | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables found in poetry | 76 | |
| 6266065249 | 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..." | 77 | |
| 6266065250 | mode | the general form, pattern, and manner of expression of a work of literature | 78 | |
| 6266065251 | montage | a quick succession of images/impressions used to express an idea | 79 | |
| 6266065253 | nemesis | the protagonist's archenemy or supreme and persistent difficulty | 80 | |
| 6266065254 | objectivity | this treatment of a subject matter is an impersonal/outside view of events | 81 | |
| 6266065255 | 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 | 82 | |
| 6266065258 | motif | a phrase, idea, event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in a work of literature. | 83 | |
| 6266065259 | muse | one of the ancient Greek goddesses presiding over the arts. the imaginary source of inspiration for an artist or writer | 84 | |
| 6266065262 | naturalism | a term often used as a synonym for "realism"; also a view of experiences that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic | 85 | |
| 6266065263 | non sequitur | a statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before | 86 | |
| 6266065264 | novel of manners | a novel focusing on and describing the social customs and habits of a particular social group | 87 | |
| 6266065265 | ode | a lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 88 | |
| 6266065266 | omniscient narrator | a narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characters, setting, background, and all other elements of the story | 89 | |
| 6266065269 | ottava rima | an eight-line rhyming stanza of a poem | 90 | |
| 6266065270 | 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 | 91 | |
| 6266065271 | paradox | a statement that seems self-contradictory yet true | 92 | |
| 6266065272 | parallelism | repeated syntactical similarities used for effect | 93 | |
| 6266065275 | pastoral | a work of literature dealing with rural life | 94 | |
| 6266065276 | pathetic fallacy | faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects | 95 | |
| 6266065279 | 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 | 96 | |
| 6266065282 | picaresque novel | an episodic novel about a roguelike wanderer who lives off his wits. e.g. "Don Quixote", "Moll Flanders" | 97 | |
| 6266065283 | plaint | a poem or speech expressing sorrow | 98 | |
| 6266065287 | objective narrator | 3rd person narr. who only reports on what would be visible to a camera, doesn't know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks of it. | 99 | |
| 6266065289 | prosody | the grammar of meter and rhythm in poetry | 100 | |
| 6266065291 | prelude | an introductory poem to a longer work of verse | 101 | |
| 6266065292 | pun | the usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 102 | |
| 6266065293 | 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) | 103 | |
| 6266065294 | quatrian | a four-line poem or a four-line unit of a longer poem | 104 | |
| 6266065295 | refrain | a line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem | 105 | |
| 6266065296 | requiem | a song of prayer for the dead | 106 | |
| 6266065298 | rhetoric | the language of a work and its style; words, often highly emotional, used to convince or sway an audience | 107 | |
| 6266065300 | rhapsody | an intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise | 108 | |
| 6266065302 | rhyme scheme | the patterns of rhymes within a given poem i.e. abba | 109 | |
| 6266065306 | satire | a literary style used to poke fun at, attack or ridicule an idea, vice, or foible, often for the purpose of inducing change. great subjects for this include hypocrisy, vanity and greed, especially if those characteristics have become institutionalized in society | 110 | |
| 6266065309 | sentimental | a term that describes characters' excessive emotional response to experience; also nauseatingly nostalgic and mawkish | 111 | |
| 6266065310 | sentiment | a synonym for "view" or "feeling"; also refined and tender emotion in literature | 112 | |
| 6266065311 | scansion | the act of determining the meter of a poetic line. | 113 | |
| 6266065313 | 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 | 114 | |
| 6266065315 | 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 | 115 | |
| 6266065316 | stock characters | standard or cliched character types: the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl, etc. | 116 | |
| 6266065319 | subplot | a subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or play, usually connected to the main plot | 117 | |
| 6266065320 | subtext | the implied meaning that underlies the main meaning of a work of literature | 118 | |
| 6266065323 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part | 119 | |
| 6266065327 | tragic flaw | in a tragedy, this is the weakness of a character in an otherwise good individual that ultimately leads to his demise | 120 | |
| 6266065329 | travesty | a grotesque parody | 121 | |
| 6266065330 | truism | a way-too-obvious truth | 122 | |
| 6266065332 | verbal irony | a discrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words | 123 | |
| 6266065334 | 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 | 124 | |
| 6266065335 | 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. | 125 | |
| 6266065336 | villanelle | a French verse form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous but consisting of 19 lines and a prescribed pattern of rhymes | 126 | |
| 6266065338 | 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 | 127 | |
| 6266065339 | 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." | 128 | |
| 6266065340 | anastrophe | inversion of the natural or usual word order | 129 | |
| 6266065342 | 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." | 130 | |
| 6266065343 | 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" | 131 | |
| 6266065344 | anadiplosis | repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. "The crime was common, common be the pain." | 132 | |
| 6266065345 | 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." | 133 | |
| 6266065346 | chiasmus | reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses. "Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys." | 134 | |
| 6266065347 | polyptoton | repetition of words derived from the same root. "But in this desert country they may see the land being rendered USELESS by OVERUSE." | 135 | |
| 6266065348 | antanaclasis | repetition of a word in two different senses. "Your argument is sound, nothing but sound." | 136 | |
| 6266065349 | paronomasia | use of words alike in sound but different in meaning. "ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a GRAVE man." | 137 | |
| 6266065350 | 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." | 138 | |
| 6266065351 | anthimeria | the substitution of one part of speech for another "I'll UNHAIR they head." | 139 | |
| 6266065352 | 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." | 140 | |
| 6266065355 | epiphany | in a literary work, a moment of sudden insight/revelation that a character experiences | 141 |
