Terms : Hide Images
| 7341566761 | allegory | a story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities | 0 | |
| 7341566762 | alliteration | the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of several words that are close together | 1 | |
| 7341566763 | allusion | reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culure | 2 | |
| 7341566764 | ambiguity | when an author leaves out details/information or is unclear about an event to the reader will use his imagination to fill in the blanks; deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work | 3 | |
| 7341566765 | analogy | comparison made between two things to show how they are alike | 4 | |
| 7341566766 | anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines in a poem; makes the writer's point more coherent | 5 | |
| 7341566767 | anastrophe | inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence; purpose is rhyme or emphasis or euphony; inversion | 6 | |
| 7341566768 | anecdote | a short story or joke told at the beginning of a speech to gain the audience's attention; a brief story told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often showing the character of an individual | 7 | |
| 7341566769 | antagonist | the protagonist's adversary; one who struggles against or blocks the hero or protagonist | 8 | |
| 7341566770 | anthropomorphism | attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object; personification | 9 | |
| 7341566771 | anti-climactic | when the ending of the plot in poetry or prose is unfulfilling or lackluster | 10 | |
| 7341566772 | antimetabole | repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order | 11 | |
| 7341566773 | antithesis | balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure | 12 | |
| 7341566774 | antihero | central character that lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes; may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples | 13 | |
| 7341566775 | aphorism | brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life or of a principle or of an accepted/general truth | 14 | |
| 7341566776 | apostrophe | calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea; if the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation | 15 | |
| 7341566777 | apposition | placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first (often set off by a colon) | 16 | |
| 7341566778 | assonance | the repetition of the same vowel sound in a phrase or line of poetry | 17 | |
| 7341566779 | asyndeton | commas or other punctuation used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally (i.e. X, Y, Z) | 18 | |
| 7341566780 | balance | constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance | 19 | |
| 7341566781 | blank verse | name for unrhymed iambic pentameter; an iamb is a metrical foot in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable; an iambic pentameter has five iambs per line making ten syllables | 20 | |
| 7341566782 | dynamic character | one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action | 21 | |
| 7341566783 | flat character | one who has only one or two personality traits; they are one-dimensional, like a piece of cardboard; they can be summed up in one phrase | 22 | |
| 7341566784 | round character | one who has more dimensions to their personalities; they are complex, just as real people are | 23 | |
| 7341566785 | static character | one who undergoes little or no change during the story | 24 | |
| 7341566786 | direct characterization | the author tells directly what the character is like; romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form | 25 | |
| 7341566787 | indirect characterization | the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character's private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the character's effect on other, by showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character, or by showing the character in action; common in modern literature | 26 | |
| 7341566788 | chiasmus | in poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed | 27 | |
| 7341566789 | cliche | a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse | 28 | |
| 7341566790 | climax | the turning point in the plot or the high point of action | 29 | |
| 7341566791 | coherence | when the details of a piece of writing are in such good order and the relationships between the details so clear that the meaning is easily understood | 30 | |
| 7341566792 | colloquialism | a word or phrase used in informal, conversational language; phrases or sayings indicative of a specific region | 31 | |
| 7341566793 | comedy | in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character(s) | 32 | |
| 7341566794 | conceit | an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different; often an extended metaphor | 33 | |
| 7341566795 | conflict | the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story | 34 | |
| 7341566796 | external conflict | conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine, or between a person and a whole society | 35 | |
| 7341566797 | internal conflict | a struggle that involves opposing forces within a person's mind | 36 | |
| 7341566798 | connotation | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition | 37 | |
| 7341566799 | convention | an understanding between a reader and a writer about certain details of a story that does not need to be explained | 38 | |
| 7341566800 | consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds in a phrase or line of poetry; the consonant sound may be at the beginning of the word, but is more likely to be in the middle or end of the word | 39 | |
| 7341566801 | couplet | two rhyming lines in poetry | 40 | |
| 7341566802 | deus ex machina | term that refers to a character or force that appears at the end of a story or play to resolve conflict; words mean "god from a machine"; in ancient Greek drama, gods were lowered onto the stage by a mechanism to extricate characters from a seemingly hopeless situation; the phrase has come to mean any turn of events that solve the characters' problems through an unexpected and unlikely intervention | 41 | |
| 7341566803 | dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geological area | 42 | |
| 7341566804 | diction | word choice or the use of words in speech or writing | 43 | |
| 7341566805 | didactic | a form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking | 44 | |
| 7341566806 | denouement | the final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot | 45 | |
| 7341566807 | doppelganger | the alter ego of a character; the suppressed side of one's personality that is usually unaccepted by society | 46 | |
| 7341566808 | elegy | a poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person | 47 | |
| 7341566809 | eulogy | great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died | 48 | |
| 7341566810 | emotive language | deliberate use of language by a writer to instill a feeling or visual | 49 | |
| 7341566811 | enjambment | the continuation of reading one line of a poem to the next with no pause, a run-on line | 50 | |
| 7341566812 | epanalepsis | a device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence | 51 | |
| 7341566813 | epic | an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero | 52 | |
| 7341566814 | epigraph | a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme | 53 | |
| 7341566815 | epilogue | a short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a play, or in a novel it is a short explanation at the end of the book which indicates what happens after the plot ends | 54 | |
| 7341566816 | epiphany | sudden enlightenment or realization, a profound new outlook or understanding about the world usually attained while doing everyday mundane activities | 55 | |
| 7341566817 | epistolary | used to describe a novel that tells its story through letters written from one character to another | 56 | |
| 7341566818 | epistrophe | a device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (opposite of anaphora) | 57 | |
| 7341566819 | epithet | an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality (a Homeric __________ is a compound adjective used with a person or thing) | 58 | |
| 7341566820 | euphemism | the act of substituting a harsh, blunt, or offensive comment for a more politically accepted or positive one | 59 | |
| 7341566821 | euphony | a succession of words which are pleasing to the ear; these words may be alliterative, utilize consonance, or assonance and are often used in poetry but also seen in prose | 60 | |
| 7341566822 | expansion | adds an unstressed syllable and a contraction | 61 | |
| 7341566823 | elision | removes an unstressed syllable in order to maintain the rhythmic meter of a line; th' in place of the, o'er in place of over, 'tis and 'twas in place of it is and it was | 62 | |
| 7341566824 | exposition | one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or set forth | 63 | |
| 7341566825 | fable | a usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans | 64 | |
| 7341566826 | feminine ending | term that refers to an unstressed extra syllable at the end of a line of iambic pentameter | 65 | |
| 7341566827 | figurative language | speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning; speech or writing employing figures of speach | 66 | |
| 7341566828 | flashback | when a character remembers a past event that is relevant to the current action of the story; a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time | 67 | |
| 7341566829 | foil | a character that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another; often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero | 68 | |
| 7341566830 | folklore | the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally | 69 | |
| 7341566831 | foreshadowing | clues in the text about incidents that will occur later in the plot, creates anticipation | 70 | |
| 7341566832 | free verse | type of verse that contains a variety of line lengths, is unrhymed, and lacks traditional meter | 71 | |
| 7341566833 | genre | a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content | 72 | |
| 7341566834 | Gothic novel | a genre of fiction characterized by mystery and supernatural horror, often set in a dark castle or other medieval setting | 73 | |
| 7341566835 | heroine | a woman noted for courage and daring action or the female protagonist | 74 | |
| 7341566836 | hubris | used in Greek tragedies, refers to excessive pride that usually leads to a hero's downfall | 75 | |
| 7341566837 | hyperbole | a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or comic/dramatic effect | 76 | |
| 7341566838 | illocution | language that avoids meaning of the words; concealing intentions or side-stepping the true subject of a conversation; expresses two stories, one of which is not apparent to the characters, but is apparent to the reader | 77 | |
| 7341566839 | imagery | the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas | 78 | |
| 7341566840 | in medias res | a story that begins in the middle of things | 79 | |
| 7341566841 | inversion | in poetry is an intentional digression from ordinary word order which is used to maintain regular meters; can be formed by the insertion or absence of a pause | 80 | |
| 7341566842 | irony | when one thing should occur, is apparent, or in logical sequence but the opposite actually occurs | 81 | |
| 7341566843 | dramatic irony | when the audience or reader knows something characters do not know | 82 | |
| 7341566844 | verbal irony | when one thing is said, but something else, usually the opposite, is meant | 83 | |
| 7341566845 | cosmic irony | when a higher power toys with human expectations | 84 | |
| 7341566846 | juxtaposition | poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit; also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors | 85 | |
| 7341566847 | masculine ending | stressed extra syllable at the end of a line | 86 | |
| 7341566848 | memoir | an account of the personal experiences of an author | 87 | |
| 7341566849 | meter | the measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or the number of syllables in a line | 88 | |
| 7341566850 | metaphor | a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison; this comparison does not use like or as | 89 | |
| 7341566851 | extended metaphor | a metaphor that is developed as far as the writer wants to take it (conceit if it is quite elaborate) | 90 | |
| 7341566852 | implied metaphor | a metaphor that does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison | 91 | |
| 7341566853 | mixed metaphor | a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible | 92 | |
| 7341566854 | metonymy | the use of a word or phrase to stand in for something else which it is often associated with | 93 | |
| 7341566855 | mood | an atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected | 94 | |
| 7341566856 | motif | a dominant theme or central idea; a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work, unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme | 95 | |
| 7341566857 | narrator | someone who tells a story | 96 | |
| 7341566858 | first person | the narrator is a character in the story | 97 | |
| 7341566859 | third person objective | the narrator does not tell what anyone is thinking | 98 | |
| 7341566860 | third person limited | the narrator is able to tell the thoughts of one character | 99 | |
| 7341566861 | third person omnicient | the narrator is able to tell the thoughts of any character | 100 | |
| 7341566862 | novella | a short novel usually under 100 pages | 101 | |
| 7341566863 | neutral language | language opposite from emotive language as it is literal or even objective in nature | 102 | |
| 7341566864 | oblique rhyme | imperfect rhyme scheme | 103 | |
| 7341566865 | ode | a lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure; celebrates something | 104 | |
| 7341566866 | onomatopoeia | the formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to | 105 | |
| 7341566867 | oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase | 106 | |
| 7341566868 | parable | a relatively short story that teaches a moral or lesson about how to lead a good life | 107 | |
| 7341566869 | paradox | a statement which seems to contradict itself but reveals a kind of truth | 108 | |
| 7341566870 | parallel structure (parallelism) | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structure | 109 | |
| 7341566871 | parody | a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule | 110 | |
| 7341566872 | personification | a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form | 111 | |
| 7341566873 | plot | the series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline | 112 | |
| 7341566874 | poetic justice | the rewarding of virtue and the punishment of vice in the resolution of a plot; the characters, as they say, get what they deserve | 113 | |
| 7341566875 | polysyndeton | a sentence which uses a conjunction with no commas to separate the items in a series | 114 | |
| 7341566876 | prequel | a literary, dramatic, or cinematic work whose narrative takes place before that of a preexisting work or a sequel | 115 | |
| 7341566877 | prologue | an introduction or preface, especially a poem recited to introduce a play | 116 | |
| 7341566878 | prose | ordinary speech or writing without metrical structure, written in paragraph form (novels and short stories) | 117 | |
| 7341566879 | protagonist | the main character in a drama or literary work | 118 | |
| 7341566880 | pun | play on words, when two words have multiple meanings and spellings and are used in a humorous manner | 119 | |
| 7341566881 | quatrain | a poem consisting of four lines or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit | 120 | |
| 7341566882 | refrain | a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated for effect several times in a poem | 121 | |
| 7341566883 | rhetoric | the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse | 122 | |
| 7341566884 | rhetorical question | a question asked for an effect and not actually requiring an answer | 123 | |
| 7341566885 | rhyme | the repetition of sounds in words | 124 | |
| 7341566886 | rhyme scheme | the act of assigning letters in the alphabet to demonstrate the rhyming lines in a poem | 125 | |
| 7341566887 | rising action | the events of a dramatic or narrative plot preceding the climax | 126 | |
| 7341566888 | rites of passage | an incident which creates tremendous growth signifying a transition from adolescence to adulthood | 127 | |
| 7341566889 | romance | in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful | 128 | |
| 7341566890 | resolution | solution to the conflict in literature | 129 | |
| 7341566891 | satire | a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit; the goal is to change the behavior or issue | 130 | |
| 7341566892 | simile | a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as | 131 | |
| 7341566893 | slang | a kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect | 132 | |
| 7341566894 | soliloquy | a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or reveals his thoughts without addressing a listener; typical in plays | 133 | |
| 7341566895 | sonnet | a poem with fourteen lines | 134 | |
| 7341566896 | Italian sonnet | subdivides into two quatrains and two tercets | 135 | |
| 7341566897 | English sonnet | subdivides into three quatrains and one couplet | 136 | |
| 7341566898 | volta | a sudden change of thought which is common in sonnets | 137 | |
| 7341566899 | stereotype | a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social, or racial prejudices | 138 | |
| 7341566900 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind | 139 | |
| 7341566901 | style | the combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era | 140 | |
| 7341566902 | suspense | a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story | 141 | |
| 7341566903 | symbolism | something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible | 142 | |
| 7341566904 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole | 143 | |
| 7341566905 | syntactic fluency | the ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length | 144 | |
| 7341566906 | tall tale | an outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable | 145 | |
| 7341566907 | theme | the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work | 146 | |
| 7341566908 | tone | the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization | 147 | |
| 7341566909 | tragedy | a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances | 148 | |
| 7341566910 | understatement | a statement that says less than what is meant | 149 | |
| 7341566911 | unity | unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle; dependent upon coherence | 150 | |
| 7341566912 | vernacular | the language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality | 151 |
