Terms : Hide Images
| 2663833546 | Absolute | a word free from limitations or qualifications | 0 | |
| 2663833547 | Abstract | refers to language that describes concepts rather than concrete images ( ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places). The observable or "physical" is usually described in concrete language. | 1 | |
| 2663833548 | Ad Hominem | In an argument, this is an attack on the person rather than on the opponent's ideas. It comes from the Latin meaning "against the man." | 2 | |
| 2663833549 | Adage | a familiar proverb or wise saying | 3 | |
| 2663833550 | Allegory | an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface of the story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric. Examples: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Temptations of Christians) , Orwell's Animal Farm (Russian Revolution), and Arthur Miller's Crucible ("Red Scare") | 4 | |
| 2663833551 | Alliteration | the repetition of initial sounds in successive or neighboring words | 5 | |
| 2663833552 | Allusion | a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical | 6 | |
| 2663833553 | Analogy | a comparison of two different things that are similar in some way | 7 | |
| 2663833554 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent. Ex: "There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows. There was the faint, cool kiss of sensuality. There was the vague sense of the infinite...." Ex: "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. " Churchill. | 8 | |
| 2663833555 | Anecdote | a brief narrative that focuses on a particular incident or event | 9 | |
| 2663833556 | Annotation | Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. | 10 | |
| 2663833557 | Antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers | 11 | |
| 2663833558 | Antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by word, phrase, clause, or paragraphs. Examples: "To be or not to be..." Shakespeare's Hamlet "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country...." Kennedy "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Lincoln | 12 | |
| 2663833559 | Aphorism | a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life. Examples: "Early bird gets the worm." "What goes around, comes around.." "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." | 13 | |
| 2663833560 | Apostrophe | usually in poetry but sometimes in prose; the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction Ex: "For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him." Shakespeare's Julius Caesar | 14 | |
| 2663833561 | Archetype | a detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and appeals in a universal way | 15 | |
| 2663833562 | Assonance | repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in neigh/fade, | 16 | |
| 2663833563 | Asyndeton | Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence. Asyndeton takes the form of X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z. Ex: "Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines." Marine Corps Ex: "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." John F. Kennedy | 17 | |
| 2663833564 | Bathos | insincere or overly sentimental quality intended to evoke pity | 18 | |
| 2663833565 | Cacophony | harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony. | 19 | |
| 2663833566 | Caricature | descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality. | 20 | |
| 2663833567 | Chiasmus | a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed | 21 | |
| 2663833568 | Colloquialism | informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing | 22 | |
| 2663833569 | Complex sentence | a sentence with two or more coordinate independent clauses | 23 | |
| 2663833570 | Compound sentence | two independent clauses combined with a conjunction | 24 | |
| 2663833571 | Conceit | a fanciful, particularly clever extended metaphor | 25 | |
| 2663833572 | Concrete detail | details that relate to or describe actual, specific things or events | 26 | |
| 2663833573 | Connotation | implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind. | 27 | |
| 2663833574 | Consonance | repetition of identical consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity, as in boost/best; it can also be seen within several compound words, such as fulfill and ping-pong | 28 | |
| 2663833575 | Cumulative sentence | a sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases | 29 | |
| 2663833576 | Deductive reasoning | reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case | 30 | |
| 2663833577 | Denotation | literal meaning of a word as defined | 31 | |
| 2663833578 | Diction | word choice, an element of style; it creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic ______ would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise than street slang. | 32 | |
| 2663833579 | Didactic | writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. The work is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns. This type of writing may be fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking. | 33 | |
| 2663833580 | Dissonance | harsh or grating sounds that do not go together | 34 | |
| 2663833581 | Ellipsis | the omission of a word or phrase that is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context | 35 | |
| 2663833582 | Epigram | a brief, pithy, and often paradoxical saying | 36 | |
| 2663833583 | Epigraph | the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. Hemingway begins The Sun Also Rises with two quotations. One of them is "You are all a lost generation" by Gertrude Stein. | 37 | |
| 2663833584 | Epistrophe | repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect (as Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people") Compare to anaphora. Ex: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child." (Corinthians) Ex: I'll have my bond!/ Speak not against my bond!/ I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.---The Merchant of Venice | 38 | |
| 2663833585 | Euphemism | a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. "He went to his final reward" is a common saying for "he died." These are also often used to obscure the reality of a situation. The military uses "collateral damage" to indicate civilian deaths in a military operation. | 39 | |
| 2663833586 | Euphony | a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony | 40 | |
| 2663833587 | Exposition | the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse | 41 | |
| 2663833588 | Extended Metaphor | a sustained comparison, often referred to as a conceit. The extended metaphor is developed throughout a piece of writing | 42 | |
| 2663833589 | False Analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them. | 43 | |
| 2663833590 | Figurative language | language employing one or more figures of speech | 44 | |
| 2663833591 | Foreshadowing | the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs late in the work | 45 | |
| 2663833592 | Generalization | When a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable. Sweeping generalizations occur when a writer asserts that a claim applies to all instances instead of some. | 46 | |
| 2663833593 | Genre | a major category or type of literature | 47 | |
| 2663833594 | Homily | a sermon, or a moralistic lecture | 48 | |
| 2663833595 | Hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis (Example: He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse.) | 49 | |
| 2663833596 | Idiom | an expression in a given language that cannot be understood from the literal meaning of the words | 50 | |
| 2663833597 | Imagery | the use of figures of speech to create vivid images that appeal to one of the senses | 51 | |
| 2663833598 | Implication | a suggestion an author or speaker makes without stating it directly | 52 | |
| 2663833599 | Induction | the process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization | 53 | |
| 2663833600 | Inference | a conclusion one can draw from the presented details | 54 | |
| 2663833601 | Invective | an intensely vehement, highly emotional verbal attack | 55 | |
| 2663833602 | Inversion | reversing the customary (subject first, then verb, then complement) order of elements in a sentence or phrase; it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: "Are you going to the store?" Usually, the element that appears first is emphasized more than the subject. | 56 | |
| 2663833603 | Irony | a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected. | 57 | |
| 2663833604 | Jargon | The special language of a profession or group. The term usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to jargon. | 58 | |
| 2663833605 | Juxtaposition | placing two elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast | 59 | |
| 2663833606 | Litotes | a type of understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite | 60 | |
| 2663833607 | Lyrical | Songlike; characterized by emotions, subjectivity, and imagination. | 61 | |
| 2663833608 | Malapropism | the mistaken substitution of one word for another word that sounds similar | 62 | |
| 2663833609 | Maxim | a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage | 63 | |
| 2663833610 | Metaphor | a direct comparison of two different things | 64 | |
| 2663833611 | Metonymy | a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch ; Also, "The pen is mightier than the sword." | 65 | |
| 2663833612 | Mood | similar to tone, it is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere). Syntax is also a determiner of this term because sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing. | 66 | |
| 2663833613 | Motif | main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea | 67 | |
| 2663833614 | Motivation | a character's incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner | 68 | |
| 2663833615 | Non-sequitur | Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another | 69 | |
| 2663833616 | Objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story. Hard news journalism is frequently prized for its objectivity, although even fictional stories can be told without a writer rendering personal judgment. | 70 | |
| 2663833617 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool," bitter-sweet," "pretty ugly," "jumbo shrimp," "cold fire" | 71 | |
| 2663833618 | Paradox | a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau; "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." | 72 | |
| 2663833619 | Parallelism | the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. Parallel structure may be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb; it may take the form of two or more of the same type of phrases (prepositional, participial, gerund, appositive) that modify the same noun or verb; it may also take the form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or, parallel structure may be a complex bend of singe-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence. Example (from Churchill): "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields." | 73 | |
| 2663833620 | Paraphrase | a restatement of a text in a different form or in different words | 74 | |
| 2663833621 | Parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. . It can be utterly mocking or gently humorous. It depends on allusion and exaggerates and distorts the original style and content. | 75 | |
| 2663833622 | Pedantic | a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant | 76 | |
| 2663833623 | Point of View | the perspective from which a story is presented | 77 | |
| 2663833624 | Polysyndeton | Sentence which uses and or another conjunction (with no commas) to separate the items in a series. Polysyndeton appear in the form of X and Y and Z, stressing equally each member of a series. It makes the sentence slower and the items more emphatic than in the asyndeton. | 78 | |
| 2663833625 | Pun | a play on words achieved through words with similar sounds but different meanings | 79 | |
| 2663833626 | Reductio ad Absurdum | the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice | 80 | |
| 2663833627 | Resolution | the falling action of a narrative | 81 | |
| 2663833628 | Rhetoric | the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; Rhetoric focuses on the interrelationship of invention, arrangement, and style in order to create felicitous and appropriate discourse. | 82 | |
| 2663833629 | Rhetorical Device | literary techniques used to heighten the effectiveness of expression | 83 | |
| 2663833630 | Rhetorical Question | a question asked merely for effect and not requiring an answer | 84 | |
| 2663833631 | Sarcasm | harsh, cutting language or tone intended to ridicule | 85 | |
| 2663833632 | Satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. It doesn't simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). It targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals. | 86 | |
| 2663833633 | Simple sentence | a sentence consisting of one independent clause | 87 | |
| 2663833634 | Style | an author's characteristic manner of expression - his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to style | 88 | |
| 2663833635 | Subjectivity | a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions | 89 |
