Terms : Hide Images
| 10429576516 | Absolute | a word free from limitations or qualifications - best, all, none, perfect, worst | 0 | |
| 10429576517 | Abstract | Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points. | 1 | |
| 10429576518 | Absurd | Extremely ridiculous or completely lacking reason; unreasonable or foolish. | 2 | |
| 10429576519 | Academic | Dry and rhetorical writing; sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis. | 3 | |
| 10429576520 | Accent | In poetry, the stressed portion of a word. | 4 | |
| 10429576521 | Active Voice | The opposite of passive voice; a sentence with an active verb. It expresses more energy and command of the essay than does the passive voice. | 5 | |
| 10429576522 | Ad hominem argument | An argument attacking an individual's character rather than his or her position on an issue | 6 | |
| 10429576523 | Aesthetic | Appealing to the senses; a coherent sense of taste or style. | 7 | |
| 10429576524 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 8 | |
| 10429576525 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. | 9 | |
| 10429576526 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure. | 10 | |
| 10429576527 | Ambibranch | A poetic foot -- light, heavy, light | 11 | |
| 10429576528 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 12 | |
| 10429576529 | Anachronism | "Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting. | 13 | |
| 10429576530 | Analogy | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 14 | |
| 10429576531 | Anapest | A poetic foot -- light, light, heavy | 15 | |
| 10429576532 | Anaphora | A sub-type of parallelism, when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences. | 16 | |
| 10429576533 | anecdote | A short account of an interesting or humorous incident | 17 | |
| 10429576534 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. | 18 | |
| 10429576535 | Anthimeria | substitution of one part of speech for another (for example, changing a noun into a verb) | 19 | |
| 10429576536 | Anthropomorphism | When animals are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification. | 20 | |
| 10429576537 | Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. | 21 | |
| 10429576538 | Antihero | A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities. | 22 | |
| 10429576539 | Antithesis | An opposition or contrast of ideas. Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure. | 23 | |
| 10429576540 | antonomasia | the substitution of a title, epithet, or descriptive phrase for a proper name; example calling a lover Casanova. | 24 | |
| 10429576541 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying. | 25 | |
| 10429576542 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman. | 26 | |
| 10429576543 | Apotheosis | Elevation to divine status; the perfect example of something. Making a God of something or someone. | 27 | |
| 10429576544 | Appositive | A noun or noun substitute that is placed directly next to the noun it is describing: My student, Sidney, makes me want to retire. | 28 | |
| 10429576545 | Archaism | The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. | 29 | |
| 10429576546 | Archetype | A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response | 30 | |
| 10429576547 | Argument | a statement of the meaning or main point of a literary work | 31 | |
| 10429576548 | 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. | 32 | |
| 10429576549 | Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." | 33 | |
| 10429576550 | Asyndeton | The deliberate omission of conjunctions from series of related independent clauses. The effect is to create a tight, concise, and forceful sentence. | 34 | |
| 10429576551 | Atmosphere | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 35 | |
| 10429576552 | Attitude | A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject. | 36 | |
| 10429576553 | balanced sentence | a sentence in which words, phrases, or clauses are set off against each other to emphasize a contrast | 37 | |
| 10429576554 | Bathos | A false or forced emotion that is often humorous; Writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries too hard to be a tear jerker. | 38 | |
| 10429576555 | Black humor | The use of disturbing themes in comedy. | 39 | |
| 10429576556 | Bombast | Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. | 40 | |
| 10429576557 | burlesque | ludicrous parody or grotesque caricature; humorous and provocative stage show | 41 | |
| 10429576558 | cacophony | (n) harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices, or sounds | 42 | |
| 10429576559 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 43 | |
| 10429576560 | carpe diem | "Seize the day"; a Latin phrase implying that one must live for the present moment, for tomorrow may be too late. | 44 | |
| 10429576561 | Catharsis | Drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play | 45 | |
| 10429576562 | chiasmus | A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary."), A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary.") | 46 | |
| 10429576563 | chorus | A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who comment on the action of a play without participation in it. | 47 | |
| 10429576564 | cliché | A worn-out idea or overused expression | 48 | |
| 10429576565 | coherence | Marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts. | 49 | |
| 10429576566 | Coinage (neologism) | A new word, usually one invented on the spot. | 50 | |
| 10429576567 | Colloquial/Colloquialism | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, but give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Include local or regional dialect | 51 | |
| 10429576568 | Complex (Dense) | Suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words. | 52 | |
| 10429576569 | Conceit (Controlling Image) | A startling or unusual metaphor, or a metaphor developed and expanded upon several lines. | 53 | |
| 10429576570 | concrete | Capable of being perceived by the senses. | 54 | |
| 10429576571 | Connotation | Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. | 55 | |
| 10429576572 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings) | 56 | |
| 10429576573 | cumulative sentence | a sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases | 57 | |
| 10429576574 | Deduction | A form of reasoning that begins with a generalization, then applies the generalization to a specific case or cases. | 58 | |
| 10429576575 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 59 | |
| 10429576576 | Diction | The words an author chooses to use. | 60 | |
| 10429576577 | Didactic | literally means "teaching." These words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles. | 61 | |
| 10429576578 | Dirge | A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy | 62 | |
| 10429576579 | Dissonance | Refers to the grating of incompatible sounds. | 63 | |
| 10429576580 | Doggerel | Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme, like limericks. | 64 | |
| 10429576581 | Dominant Expression | Precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable. | 65 | |
| 10429576582 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 66 | |
| 10429576583 | Dramatic Monologue | When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience. | 67 | |
| 10429576584 | Elegiac | Expressing sorrow or lamentation; a work that has a mournful quality. | 68 | |
| 10429576585 | Elements | Basic techniques of each genre of literature | 69 | |
| 10429576586 | epigram | A concise but ingenious, witty, and thoughtful statement. | 70 | |
| 10429576587 | epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight | 71 | |
| 10429576588 | epiplexis | (1) A rhetorical term for asking questions to rebuke or reproach rather than to elicit answers; (2) More broadly, a form of argument in which a speaker attempts to shame an opponent into adopting a particular point of view. | 72 | |
| 10429576589 | Epistrophe | ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words. | 73 | |
| 10429576590 | Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. | 74 | |
| 10429576591 | Ethos | Appeals to an audience's sense of ethics/morality/trust; Achieved by projecting an image of credibility which supports the speaker's position. | 75 | |
| 10429576592 | Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. | 76 | |
| 10429576593 | euphony | A succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony. | 77 | |
| 10429576594 | Explicit | To say or write something directly and clearly. | 78 | |
| 10429576595 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 79 | |
| 10429576596 | Fallacy | A failure of logical reasoning. Appear to make an argument reasonable, but falsely so. | 80 | |
| 10429576597 | Farce | Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, a funny play or a comedy. | 81 | |
| 10429576598 | Feminine rhyme | Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. Properly, the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed. | 82 | |
| 10429576599 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid | 83 | |
| 10429576600 | Figure of speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. | 84 | |
| 10429576601 | First person | A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. | 85 | |
| 10429576602 | flat character | a character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop throughout the story | 86 | |
| 10429576603 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 87 | |
| 10429576604 | foreshadowing | A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader. | 88 | |
| 10429576605 | frame device | a story within a story | 89 | |
| 10429576606 | Genre | A sub-category of literature. | 90 | |
| 10429576607 | Gerund | a verb ending in 'ing' to serve as a noun - 'Stabbing (used as a noun) is what I do said the thief.' | 91 | |
| 10429576608 | Gothic | A sensibility that includes such features as dark, gloomy castles and weird screams from the attic each night. | 92 | |
| 10429576609 | grotesque | Commonly used to denote aberrations from the norm of harmony, balance and proportion. Characterized by distortion, exaggeration, absurd, or the bizarre. | 93 | |
| 10429576610 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 94 | |
| 10429576611 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall | 95 | |
| 10429576612 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. | 96 | |
| 10429576613 | Idiom | An expression that cannot be understood if taken literally. | 97 | |
| 10429576614 | Imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions; related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. O | 98 | |
| 10429576615 | Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. | 99 | |
| 10429576616 | in medias res | A Latin term for a narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point. | 100 | |
| 10429576617 | Inductive Reasoning | A method of reasoning by which a speaker collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances. | 101 | |
| 10429576618 | Inference/infer | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. If it is directly stated, then it is not this. | 102 | |
| 10429576619 | Interior Monologue | Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head; tends to be coherent. | 103 | |
| 10429576620 | Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. (For example, in Henry IV, Part hill of flesh.") | 104 | |
| 10429576621 | Inversion | Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. | 105 | |
| 10429576622 | Irony/ironic | The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true. there are three major types: (1) verbal - when the words literally state the opposite of the writer's (or speaker's) meaning (2) situational - when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen (3) dramatic - when facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work. | 106 | |
| 10429576623 | Jargon | A pattern of speech and vocabulary associated with a particular group of people. Computer analysis have their own vocabulary, as do doctors, plumbers, etc. | 107 | |
| 10429576624 | Juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts. | 108 | |
| 10429576625 | Lampoon | A satire. | 109 | |
| 10429576626 | Limited Omniscient | A Third person narrator who generally reports only what one character sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character. | 110 | |
| 10429576627 | Literary Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects Displays intellectual cleverness through unusual comparisons that make good sense | 111 | |
| 10429576628 | Litotes | a form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. Examples: "Not a bad idea." | 112 | |
| 10429576629 | Logos | An appeal to reason. | 113 | |
| 10429576630 | Loose sentence | A sentence that is complete before its end: Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh. | 114 | |
| 10429576631 | Macabre | Grisly, gruesome; horrible, distressing; having death as a subject. | 115 | |
| 10429576632 | Malapropism | a word humorously misused: Example, he is the AMPLE of her eye... instead of "he is the APPLE of her eye". | 116 | |
| 10429576633 | Masculine rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular old rhyme) | 117 | |
| 10429576634 | maxim | a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage | 118 | |
| 10429576635 | Meaning | What makes sense, what's important, why the writer/speaker said what he/she said. | 119 | |
| 10429576636 | Melodrama | A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure. | 120 | |
| 10429576637 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another. | 121 | |
| 10429576638 | Metonymy | One word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as crown for royalty). | 122 | |
| 10429576639 | Monosyllabic | Having or characterized by or consisting of one syllable. | 123 | |
| 10429576640 | Mood | The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. | 124 | |
| 10429576641 | motif | a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design | 125 | |
| 10429576642 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 126 | |
| 10429576643 | Nemesis | The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty. | 127 | |
| 10429576644 | neologism | a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses | 128 | |
| 10429576645 | Non Sequitur | This literally means "it does not follow". An argument by misdirection that is logically irrelevant. | 129 | |
| 10429576646 | Objectivity | Treatment of subject matter in an impersonal manner or from an outside view. | 130 | |
| 10429576647 | Omniscient | A third person narrator who sees into each character's mind and understands all the action going on. | 131 | |
| 10429576648 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean | 132 | |
| 10429576649 | Opposition | A pairing of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one. | 133 | |
| 10429576650 | Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. | 134 |
