Terms : Hide Images
| 5595555739 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 0 | |
| 5595555740 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. | 1 | |
| 5595555741 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure. | 2 | |
| 5595555743 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 3 | |
| 5595555745 | Analogy | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 4 | |
| 5595555747 | Anaphora | A sub-type of parallelism, when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences. | 5 | |
| 5595555749 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. | 6 | |
| 5595555754 | Antithesis | An opposition or contrast of ideas. Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure. | 7 | |
| 5595555756 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying. | 8 | |
| 5595555757 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman. | 9 | |
| 5595555766 | Atmosphere | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 10 | |
| 5595555767 | Argumentative Appeals | Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Ethos is the credibility of the author. Logos is the logic used by the author. Pathos is strategy of emotion to help readers accept their claim. | 11 | |
| 5595555773 | Cacophony | (n) harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices, or sounds | 12 | |
| 5595555774 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 13 | |
| 5595555776 | Catharsis | Drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play | 14 | |
| 5609044100 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. | 15 | |
| 5595555782 | 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 | 16 | |
| 5595555784 | Conceit (Controlling Image) | A startling or unusual metaphor, or a metaphor developed and expanded upon several lines. | 17 | |
| 5595555786 | Connotation | Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. | 18 | |
| 5595555790 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 19 | |
| 5595555791 | Diction | The words an author chooses to use. | 20 | |
| 5595555792 | Didactic | literally means "teaching." These words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles. | 21 | |
| 5609165437 | Digression | The use of material unrelated to the subject of the work. | 22 | |
| 5609176577 | Denouement | The final stage in the plot structure in which the problems is solved. | 23 | |
| 5609180531 | Deus Ex Machina | An otherwise incomprehensible solution to a problem; from "out of the blue." | 24 | |
| 5595555802 | Epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight. | 25 | |
| 5595555804 | Epistrophe | ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words. | 26 | |
| 5595555805 | Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. | 27 | |
| 5595555808 | Euphemism | Are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. | 28 | |
| 5595555810 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 29 | |
| 5595555812 | Farce | Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, a funny play or a comedy. | 30 | |
| 5595555814 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 31 | |
| 5595555815 | Figure of Speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. | 32 | |
| 5595555818 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 33 | |
| 5595555819 | Foreshadowing | A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader. | 34 | |
| 5609214191 | Generic Conventions | This term describes traditions for each genre. | 35 | |
| 5595555821 | Genre | A sub-category of literature. The major category into which a literary work fits in. | 36 | |
| 5595555825 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 37 | |
| 5595555827 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. | 38 | |
| 5595555826 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall. | 39 | |
| 5595555828 | Idiom | An expression that cannot be understood if taken literally. | 40 | |
| 5595555829 | 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. | 41 | |
| 5609040771 | Imperative | The mood of a verb that gives a command/order. | 42 | |
| 5595555833 | Inference/infer | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. If it is directly stated, then it is not this. | 43 | |
| 5595555835 | Invective | An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. (For example, in Henry IV, Part hill of flesh.") | 44 | |
| 5595555837 | 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. | 45 | |
| 5595555838 | 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. | 46 | |
| 5595555839 | Juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts. | 47 | |
| 5595555843 | Litotes | A form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. Examples: "Not a bad idea." | 48 | |
| 5595555845 | Loose Sentence | A sentence that is complete before its end: Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh. | 49 | |
| 5608841723 | Lyrical | Songlike, rhythmic structure. | 50 | |
| 5595555846 | Macabre | Grisly, gruesome; horrible, distressing; having death as a subject. | 51 | |
| 5595555851 | 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. | 52 | |
| 5595555852 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another. | 53 | |
| 5595555853 | Metonymy | One word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as crown for royalty). | 54 | |
| 5595555855 | Mood | The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. | 55 | |
| 5595555856 | Motif | A principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design. | 56 | |
| 5595555857 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 57 | |
| 5595555863 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean. | 58 | |
| 5595555865 | Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. | 59 | |
| 5595555866 | Parable | A story that instructs. | 60 | |
| 5595555867 | Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. | 61 | |
| 5595555868 | Parallelism | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. | 62 | |
| 5595555871 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 63 | |
| 5608797555 | Pastoral | A rural or natural setting. | 64 | |
| 5595555874 | Pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish (language that might be described as "show-offy"; using big words for the sake of using big words). | 65 | |
| 5595555876 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence that is not grammatically complete until it has reached it s final phrase: Despite Barbara's irritation at Jack, she loved him. | 66 | |
| 5595555877 | Persona | The narrator in a non first-person novel. | 67 | |
| 5595555878 | Personification | When an inanimate object takes on human shape. | 68 | |
| 5595555880 | Plaint | A poem or speech expressing sorrow. | 69 | |
| 5595555881 | Point of View | The perspective from which the action of a novel is presented. | 70 | |
| 5595555883 | Precis | A brief synopsis. | 71 | |
| 5595555884 | Prelude | An introductory poem to a longer work of verse. | 72 | |
| 5595555886 | Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play. | 73 | |
| 5595555887 | Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings. | 74 | |
| 5608730404 | Prose | One of the major divisions of genre, prose refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its terms. | 75 | |
| 5595555889 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 76 | |
| 5595555890 | Rhetoric | From the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 77 | |
| 5608679126 | Rhetorical Modes | This flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing. The four most common are: purpose of exposition (writing), the purpose of argumentation, purpose of description, and the purpose of narration. | 78 | |
| 5595555892 | Rhetorical Question | A question that suggests an answer. | 79 | |
| 5595555895 | Sarcasm | From the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," sarcasm involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. | 80 | |
| 5595555896 | Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule. | 81 | |
| 5608659016 | Semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. | 82 | |
| 5608634443 | Setting | The background of the story: the physical location of a play, novel, or story; involves time and place. | 83 | |
| 5595555901 | Simile | A figure of speech when what is unknown is compared to something that is known using "like," "as," or "than". | 84 | |
| 5595555903 | Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone on stage, meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts. | 85 | |
| 5608583904 | Style | The consideration has two purposes: an evaluation of the sum of the choices the author makes (diction, syntax, figurative language, etc...) and classification of authors to a group and comparison of an to similar authors. | 86 | |
| 5608550111 | Subordinate Clause | Like all clauses, this word group contains both a subject and a verb, but unlike the Independent Clause, the subordinate clause cannot stand alone; it does not express a complete thought. Also called a dependent clause. | 87 | |
| 5595555911 | Syllogism | A deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises (the first one called "major" and the second called "minor") that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. | 88 | |
| 5595555912 | Symbolism | A device in literature where an object represents an idea. | 89 | |
| 5595555913 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole or, occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part. Examples: To refer to a boat as a "sail"; to refer to a car as "wheels". | 90 | |
| 5595555914 | Synesthesia | When one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another. Example: The sight of red ants makes you itchy. | 91 | |
| 5595555915 | Syntax | The ordering and structuring of words. | 92 | |
| 5595555919 | Theme | The main idea of the overall work; the central idea. | 93 | |
| 5595555920 | Thesis | The main position of an argument. The writer's statement of purpose. | 94 | |
| 5608401544 | Tone | Similar to mood, tone describes the author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both. Some words describing tone are playful, serious, sarcastic, humorous, formal, businesslike. | 95 | |
| 5608402695 | Transition | A word or phrase that links to different ideas. Used especially, although not exclusively, in expository and argumentative writing, effectively signal a shift from one idea to another. | 96 | |
| 5595555925 | Understatement | The ironic minimizing of fact; the opposite of hyperbole. | 97 | |
| 5595555929 | Wit | In modern usage, intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. Usually uses terse language that makes a pointed statement. | 98 |
