Terms : Hide Images
| 8646759908 | ad hominem | an argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack. | 0 | |
| 8646759909 | adjective | the part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun. | 1 | |
| 8646759910 | adverb | the part of speech (or word class) that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. | 2 | |
| 8646759911 | allegory | extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text. | 3 | |
| 8646759912 | alliteration | the repetition of a phonetic sound at the beginning of several words in a sentence | 4 | |
| 8646759913 | allusion | a brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event—real or fictional | 5 | |
| 8646759914 | ambiguity | the presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage. | 6 | |
| 8646759915 | anachronism | something out of place in time or sequence | 7 | |
| 8646759916 | analogy | reasoning or arguing from parallel cases | 8 | |
| 8646759917 | anaphora | the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of phrases or clauses | 9 | |
| 8646759918 | anastrophe | the reversal of the natural order of words in a sentence or line of poetry | 10 | |
| 8646759919 | antecedent | the noun or noun phrase referred to by a pronoun. | 11 | |
| 8646759920 | anthropomorphism | the attribution of humanlike characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or forces of nature | 12 | |
| 8646759921 | antithesis | the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases | 13 | |
| 8646759922 | aphorism | a brief statement of an opinion or elemental truth | 14 | |
| 8646759923 | apostrophe | a rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing. | 15 | |
| 8646759924 | appeal to authority | a fallacy in which a speaker or writer seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for a famous person or institution. | 16 | |
| 8646759925 | appeal to ignorance | a fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness. | 17 | |
| 8646759926 | apposition | a grammatical construction in which a noun (or noun phrase) is placed with another as an explanation | 18 | |
| 8646759927 | assonance | the identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words. | 19 | |
| 8646759928 | asyndeton | the omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (compare to polysyndeton). | 20 | |
| 8646759929 | chiasmus | an inversion in the second of two parallel phrases | 21 | |
| 8646759930 | circular argument | an argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove. | 22 | |
| 8646759931 | clause | a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate. | 23 | |
| 8646759932 | climax | mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events. | 24 | |
| 8646759933 | colloquial | characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary english. | 25 | |
| 8646759934 | complement | a word or word group that completes the predicate in a sentence. | 26 | |
| 8646759935 | concession | an argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent's point. | 27 | |
| 8646759936 | conjunction | the part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. | 28 | |
| 8646759937 | connotation | the emotional implications and associations that a word may carry. | 29 | |
| 8646759938 | context | circumstances of a situation; environment | 30 | |
| 8646759939 | coordination | the grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance. contrast with subordination. | 31 | |
| 8646759940 | deduction | a method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises. | 32 | |
| 8646759941 | denotation | the dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings. | 33 | |
| 8646759942 | diction | (1) the choice and use of words in speech or writing. (2) a way of speaking, usually assessed in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution. | 34 | |
| 8646759943 | didactic | intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively. | 35 | |
| 8646759944 | encomium | a tribute or eulogy in prose or verse glorifying people, objects, ideas, or events. | 36 | |
| 8646759945 | epistrophe | the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. | 37 | |
| 8646759946 | epitaph | (1) a short inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone or monument. (2) a statement or speech commemorating someone who has died: a funeral oration. | 38 | |
| 8646759947 | eulogy | a formal expression of praise for someone who has recently died. | 39 | |
| 8646759948 | euphemism | the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit. | 40 | |
| 8646759949 | exposition | a statement or type of composition intended to give information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea. | 41 | |
| 8646759950 | extended metaphor | a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. | 42 | |
| 8646759951 | fallacy | an error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. | 43 | |
| 8646759952 | false dilemma | a fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in fact more options are available. | 44 | |
| 8646759953 | genre | describing a category or artistic endeavor | 45 | |
| 8646759954 | hasty generalization | a fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. | 46 | |
| 8646759955 | hyperbole | a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. | 47 | |
| 8646759956 | imagery | vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses. | 48 | |
| 8646759957 | induction | a method of reasoning by which a writer or speaker collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances. | 49 | |
| 8646759958 | invective | denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or something. | 50 | |
| 8646759959 | irony | the use of words to convey something other than their literal meaning. a statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. | 51 | |
| 8646759960 | isocolon | a succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. | 52 | |
| 8646759961 | jargon | the specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders. | 53 | |
| 8646759962 | litotes | a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. | 54 | |
| 8646759963 | loose sentence | a sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses. compare to periodic sentence. | 55 | |
| 8646759964 | metaphor | a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. | 56 | |
| 8646759965 | metonymy | a type of figurative language in which one term is substituted for another term with which it is closely associated | 57 | |
| 8646759966 | mode of discourse | the way in which information is presented in a text. the four traditional modes are narration, description, exposition, and argument. | 58 | |
| 8646759967 | mood | (1) the quality of a verb that conveys the writer's attitude toward a subject (e.g. declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory). (2) the emotion evoked by a text. | 59 | |
| 8646759968 | narrative | a rhetorical strategy that recounts a sequence of events, usually in chronological order. | 60 | |
| 8646759969 | onomatopoeia | the formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. | 61 | |
| 8646759970 | oxymoron | a figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. | 62 | |
| 8646759971 | paradigm | an example or model | 63 | |
| 8646759972 | paradox | a statement that appears to contradict itself. | 64 | |
| 8646759973 | parallelism | a grammatical construction in which two identical syntactic constructions are used | 65 | |
| 8646759974 | parody | a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule. | 66 | |
| 8646759975 | periodic sentence | a long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word—usually with an emphatic climax | 67 | |
| 8646759976 | phenomenon | an unusual, observable event | 68 | |
| 8646759977 | polysyndeton | the addition of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (compare to asyndeton). | 69 | |
| 8646759978 | predicate | one of the two main parts of a sentence or clause, modifying the subject and including the verb, objects, or phrases governed by the verb. | 70 | |
| 8646759979 | prose | ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction) as distinguished from verse. | 71 | |
| 8646759980 | refutation | the part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. | 72 | |
| 8646759981 | repetition | an instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage—dwelling on a point. | 73 | |
| 8646759982 | sarcasm | a mocking and often ironic or satirical remark. | 74 | |
| 8646759983 | satire | a text or performance that uses irony, derision, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or stupidity. | 75 | |
| 8646759984 | simile | a figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by "like" or "as." | 76 | |
| 8646759985 | style | narrowly interpreted as those figures that ornament speech or writing; broadly, as representing a manifestation of the person speaking or writing. | 77 | |
| 8646759986 | subordination | words, phrases, and clauses that make one element of a sentence dependent on (or subordinate to) another. contrast with coordination. | 78 | |
| 8646759987 | syllogism | a form of deductive reasoning; a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion | 79 | |
| 8646759988 | symbol | a person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself. | 80 | |
| 8646759989 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part. | 81 | |
| 8646759990 | syntax | (1) the study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. (2) the arrangement of words in a sentence. | 82 | |
| 8646759991 | tone | a writer's attitude toward the subject and audience, primarily conveyed through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality. | 83 | |
| 8646759992 | understatement | a figure of speech in which a writer deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. | 84 | |
| 8646759993 | voice | (1) the quality of a verb that indicates whether its subject acts (active voice) or is acted upon (passive voice). (2) the distinctive style or manner of expression of an author or narrator. | 85 |
