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| 4939767541 | allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some, for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom. | 0 | |
| 4939775279 | alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (as in "she sells sea shells"). The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, and/or echo the sense of the passage. | 1 | |
| 4939781631 | allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. | 2 | |
| 4939785000 | ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 3 | |
| 4939820009 | anadiplosis | The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. "Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering." Yoda | 4 | |
| 4939820010 | analogy | A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. It can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. It can also make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually engaging. | 5 | |
| 4939832981 | anaphora | One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." | 6 | |
| 4939835960 | anecdote | A short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event. The term most frequently refers to an incident in the life of a person. | 7 | |
| 4939841131 | antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. | 8 | |
| 4939847339 | aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. | 9 | |
| 4939852003 | apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. | 10 | |
| 4939868955 | atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described. | 11 | |
| 4939873364 | clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent, or main, --- expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate --- cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause. | 12 | |
| 4939879466 | colloquial | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. | 13 | |
| 4939884839 | coherence | A principle demanding that the parts of any composition be arranged so that the meaning of the whole may be immediately clear and intelligible. | 14 | |
| 4939890100 | conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. It displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made. | 15 | |
| 4939895382 | connotation | The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. | 16 | |
| 4939898388 | denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color | 17 | |
| 4939902450 | diction | Related to style, it refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness | 18 | |
| 4939910087 | didactic | literally means "teaching." These works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles | 19 | |
| 4939977945 | epistrophe | The opposite of anaphors, repetition at the end of successive clauses. "They saw no evil, they spoke no evil, and they heard no evil." | 20 | |
| 4939981248 | euphemism | From the Greek for "good speech," euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. | 21 | |
| 4940015637 | exposition | The purpose of it is to explain something. In drama, the exposition is the introductory material, which creates the tone, gives the setting, and introduces the characters and conflict. | 22 | |
| 4940063799 | extended metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 23 | |
| 4940078270 | figurative language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 24 | |
| 4940083929 | figure of speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Examples include apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 25 | |
| 4940097049 | generic conventions | This term describes traditions for each genre. | 26 | |
| 4940103714 | genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. | 27 | |
| 4940120614 | homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 28 | |
| 4940126313 | hyperbole | A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. They often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, it produces irony. | 29 | |
| 4940132235 | imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. | 30 | |
| 4940137279 | inference | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. | 31 | |
| 4940140200 | invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language | 32 | |
| 4940164713 | irony | The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. The difference between what appears to be and what actually is true. | 33 | |
| 4940168808 | loose sentence | A type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses. If a period were placed at the end of the independent clause, the clause would be a complete sentence. | 34 | |
| 4940180154 | metaphor | A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity. | 35 | |
| 4940192263 | metonymy | A term from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name," it is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. A news release that claims "the White House declared" rather that "the President declared". The substituted term generally carries a more potent emotional impact. | 36 | |
| 4940209147 | mood | This term has two distinct technical meanings in English writing. The first meaning is grammatical and deals with verbal units and a speaker's attitude. The second meaning of it is literary, meaning the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood. In this usage, it is similar to tone and atmosphere. | 37 | |
| 4940218413 | narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 38 | |
| 4940223258 | onomatopeia | A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum, crack, whinny, and murmur. | 39 | |
| 4940601814 | paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity | 40 | |
| 4940610355 | parallelism | this term comes from Greek roots meaning "beside one another." It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity . . . ." | 41 | |
| 4940622661 | parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. As comedy, it distorts or exaggerates distinctive features of the original. As ridicule, it mimics the work by repeating and borrowing words, phrases, or characteristics in order to illuminate weaknesses in the original. | 42 | |
| 4940625453 | pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish. | 43 | |
| 4940633298 | periodic sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. For example: "Ecstatic with my AP score, I let out a loud, joyful shout.!" | 44 | |
| 4940637050 | personification | A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions | 45 | |
| 4940645661 | point of view | In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. There are two general divisions of point of view and many subdivision within those | 46 | |
| 4940656258 | predicate adjective | One type of subject complement--an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb. It is in the predicate of the sentence, and modifies, or describes, the subject. | 47 | |
| 4940659733 | predicate nominative | A second type of subject complement -- a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that renames the subject. It, like the predicate adjective, follows a linking verb and is located in the predicate of the sentence | 48 | |
| 4940674734 | prose | One of the major divisions of genre, it refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms . it the printer determines the length of the line | 49 | |
| 4940677722 | repetition | -The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern | 50 | |
| 4940680575 | rhetor | The speaker who uses elements of rhetoric effectively in oral or written test | 51 | |
| 4940682518 | rhetoric | -From the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively | 52 | |
| 4940690441 | rhetorical modes | This flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing. | 53 | |
| 4940695644 | sarcasm | From the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," it involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something | 54 | |
| 4940715519 | satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule. Regardless of whether or not the work aims to reform human behavior, it is best seen as a style of writing rather than a purpose for writing. | 55 | |
| 4940719682 | semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. | 56 | |
| 4940728885 | style | considering it has two purposes: (1) An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. (2) Classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors. | 57 | |
| 4940739623 | subject compliment | The word (with any accompanying phrases) or clauses that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. | 58 | |
| 4940750329 | subordinate clause | Like all clauses, this word group contains both a subject and a verb (plus any accompanying phrases or modifiers), but unlike the independent clause, this clause cannot stand alone; it does not express a complete thought. Also called a dependent clause | 59 | |
| 4940760195 | syllogism | From the Greek for "reckoning together," it is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. A frequently cited example proceeds as follows: major Premise: All men are mortal. minor premise: Socrates is a man. conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal. its conclusion is valid only if each of the two premises is valid. | 60 | |
| 4940768851 | symbol | Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. | 61 | |
| 4940771340 | syntax | The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. it is similar to diction, but you can differentiate them by thinking of this as the groups of words, while diction refers to the individual words | 62 | |
| 4940774789 | theme | The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. | 63 | |
| 4940789956 | thesis | In expository writing, it is the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or position. | 64 | |
| 4940806838 | tone | Similar to mood, this describes the author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both.It is easier to determine in spoken language than in written language. | 65 | |
| 4940814252 | transition | A word or phrase that links different ideas. | 66 | |
| 4940819714 | trope | an artful variation from expected modes of expression of thoughts and ideas., a figure of speech involving a "turn" or change of sense—a use of the word in a sense other than its proper or literal one. | 67 | |
| 4940825526 | understatement | The ironic minimizing of fact, this presents something as less significant than it is. The effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic. It is the opposite of hyperbole. | 68 | |
| 4940831913 | undertone | an attitude that may lie under the ostensible tone of the piece. Under a cheery surface, for example, a work may have threatening ---s | 69 | |
| 4940835869 | unreliable narrator | An untrustworthy or naïve commentator on events and characters in a story. Huck Finn is on of American literature's most famous of this type. | 70 | |
| 4940839041 | wit | In modern usage, intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. | 71 | |
| 4940841378 | zeugma | a trope, one word (usually a noun or main verb) governs two other words not related in meaning. "He maintained a business and his innocence. | 72 |
