Terms : Hide Images
| 15008492096 | Absolute | a word free from limitations or qualifications - best, all, none, perfect, worst | 0 | |
| 15008492097 | Abstract | Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points. | 1 | |
| 15008492098 | Absurd | Extremely ridiculous or completely lacking reason; unreasonable or foolish. | 2 | |
| 15008492099 | Academic | Dry and rhetorical writing; sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis. | 3 | |
| 15008492100 | Accent | In poetry, the stressed portion of a word. | 4 | |
| 15008492101 | 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 | |
| 15008492102 | Ad hominem argument | An argument attacking an individual's character rather than his or her position on an issue | 6 | |
| 15008492103 | Aesthetic | Appealing to the senses; a coherent sense of taste or style. | 7 | |
| 15008492104 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 8 | |
| 15008492105 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. | 9 | |
| 15008492106 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure. | 10 | |
| 15008492107 | Ambibranch | A poetic foot -- light, heavy, light | 11 | |
| 15008492108 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 12 | |
| 15008492109 | Anachronism | "Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting. | 13 | |
| 15008492110 | Analogy | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 14 | |
| 15008492111 | Anapest | A poetic foot -- light, light, heavy | 15 | |
| 15008492112 | Anaphora | A sub-type of parallelism, when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences. | 16 | |
| 15008492113 | anecdote | A short account of an interesting or humorous incident | 17 | |
| 15008492114 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. | 18 | |
| 15008492115 | Anthimeria | substitution of one part of speech for another (for example, changing a noun into a verb) | 19 | |
| 15008492116 | Anthropomorphism | When animals are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification. | 20 | |
| 15008492117 | Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. | 21 | |
| 15008492118 | Antihero | A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities. | 22 | |
| 15008492119 | Antithesis | An opposition or contrast of ideas. Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure. | 23 | |
| 15008492120 | antonomasia | the substitution of a title, epithet, or descriptive phrase for a proper name; example calling a lover Casanova. | 24 | |
| 15008492121 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying. | 25 | |
| 15008492122 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman. | 26 | |
| 15008492123 | Apotheosis | Elevation to divine status; the perfect example of something. Making a God of something or someone. | 27 | |
| 15008492124 | 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 | |
| 15008492125 | Archaism | The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. | 29 | |
| 15008492126 | 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 | |
| 15008492127 | Argument | a statement of the meaning or main point of a literary work | 31 | |
| 15008492128 | 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 | |
| 15008492129 | Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." | 33 | |
| 15008492130 | Asyndeton | The deliberate omission of conjunctions from series of related independent clauses. The effect is to create a tight, concise, and forceful sentence. | 34 | |
| 15008492131 | Atmosphere | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 35 | |
| 15008492132 | Attitude | A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject. | 36 | |
| 15008492133 | balanced sentence | a sentence in which words, phrases, or clauses are set off against each other to emphasize a contrast | 37 | |
| 15008492134 | 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 | |
| 15008492135 | Black humor | The use of disturbing themes in comedy. | 39 | |
| 15008492136 | Bombast | Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. | 40 | |
| 15008492137 | burlesque | ludicrous parody or grotesque caricature; humorous and provocative stage show | 41 | |
| 15008492138 | cacophony | (n) harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices, or sounds | 42 | |
| 15008492139 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 43 | |
| 15008492140 | carpe diem | "Seize the day"; a Latin phrase implying that one must live for the present moment, for tomorrow may be too late. | 44 | |
| 15008492141 | Catharsis | Drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play | 45 | |
| 15008492142 | 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 | |
| 15008492143 | 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 | |
| 15008492144 | cliché | A worn-out idea or overused expression | 48 | |
| 15008492145 | coherence | Marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts. | 49 | |
| 15008492146 | Coinage (neologism) | A new word, usually one invented on the spot. | 50 | |
| 15008492147 | 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 | |
| 15008492148 | Complex (Dense) | Suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words. | 52 | |
| 15008492149 | Conceit (Controlling Image) | A startling or unusual metaphor, or a metaphor developed and expanded upon several lines. | 53 | |
| 15008492150 | concrete | Capable of being perceived by the senses. | 54 | |
| 15008492151 | Connotation | Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. | 55 | |
| 15008492152 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings) | 56 | |
| 15008492153 | cumulative sentence | a sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases | 57 | |
| 15008492154 | Deduction | A form of reasoning that begins with a generalization, then applies the generalization to a specific case or cases. | 58 | |
| 15008492155 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 59 | |
| 15008492156 | Diction | The words an author chooses to use. | 60 | |
| 15008492157 | Didactic | literally means "teaching." These words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles. | 61 | |
| 15008492158 | Dirge | A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy | 62 | |
| 15008492159 | Dissonance | Refers to the grating of incompatible sounds. | 63 | |
| 15008492160 | Doggerel | Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme, like limericks. | 64 | |
| 15008492161 | Dominant Expression | Precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable. | 65 | |
| 15008492162 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 66 | |
| 15008492163 | Dramatic Monologue | When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience. | 67 | |
| 15008492164 | Elegiac | Expressing sorrow or lamentation; a work that has a mournful quality. | 68 | |
| 15008492165 | Elements | Basic techniques of each genre of literature | 69 | |
| 15008492166 | epigram | A concise but ingenious, witty, and thoughtful statement. | 70 | |
| 15008492167 | epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight | 71 | |
| 15008492168 | 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 | |
| 15008492169 | Epistrophe | ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words. | 73 | |
| 15008492170 | Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. | 74 | |
| 15008492171 | 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 | |
| 15008492172 | Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. | 76 | |
| 15008492173 | euphony | A succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony. | 77 | |
| 15008492174 | Explicit | To say or write something directly and clearly. | 78 | |
| 15008492175 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 79 | |
| 15008492176 | Fallacy | A failure of logical reasoning. Appear to make an argument reasonable, but falsely so. | 80 | |
| 15008492177 | Farce | Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, a funny play or a comedy. | 81 | |
| 15008492178 | Feminine rhyme | Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. Properly, the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed. | 82 | |
| 15008492179 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid | 83 | |
| 15008492180 | Figure of speech | A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. | 84 | |
| 15008492181 | First person | A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. | 85 | |
| 15008492182 | flat character | a character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop throughout the story | 86 | |
| 15008492183 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 87 | |
| 15008492184 | foreshadowing | A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader. | 88 | |
| 15008492185 | frame device | a story within a story | 89 | |
| 15008492186 | Genre | A sub-category of literature. | 90 | |
| 15008492187 | Gerund | a verb ending in 'ing' to serve as a noun - 'Stabbing (used as a noun) is what I do said the thief.' | 91 | |
| 15008492188 | Gothic | A sensibility that includes such features as dark, gloomy castles and weird screams from the attic each night. | 92 | |
| 15008492189 | grotesque | Commonly used to denote aberrations from the norm of harmony, balance and proportion. Characterized by distortion, exaggeration, absurd, or the bizarre. | 93 | |
| 15008492190 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 94 | |
| 15008492191 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall | 95 | |
| 15008492192 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. | 96 | |
| 15008492193 | Idiom | An expression that cannot be understood if taken literally. | 97 | |
| 15008492194 | 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 | |
| 15008492195 | Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. | 99 | |
| 15008492196 | in medias res | A Latin term for a narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point. | 100 | |
| 15008492197 | 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 | |
| 15008492198 | Inference/infer | To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. If it is directly stated, then it is not this. | 102 | |
| 15008492199 | Interior Monologue | Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head; tends to be coherent. | 103 | |
| 15008492200 | Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. (For example, in Henry IV, Part hill of flesh.") | 104 | |
| 15008492201 | Inversion | Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. | 105 | |
| 15008492202 | 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 | |
| 15008492203 | 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 | |
| 15008492204 | Juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts. | 108 | |
| 15008492205 | Lampoon | A satire. | 109 | |
| 15008492206 | 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 | |
| 15008492207 | 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 | |
| 15008492208 | Litotes | a form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. Examples: "Not a bad idea." | 112 | |
| 15008492209 | Logos | An appeal to reason. | 113 | |
| 15008492210 | Loose sentence | A sentence that is complete before its end: Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh. | 114 | |
| 15008492211 | Macabre | Grisly, gruesome; horrible, distressing; having death as a subject. | 115 | |
| 15008492212 | Malapropism | a word humorously misused: Example, he is the AMPLE of her eye... instead of "he is the APPLE of her eye". | 116 | |
| 15008492213 | Masculine rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular old rhyme) | 117 | |
| 15008492214 | maxim | a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage | 118 | |
| 15008492215 | Meaning | What makes sense, what's important, why the writer/speaker said what he/she said. | 119 | |
| 15008492216 | 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 | |
| 15008492217 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another. | 121 | |
| 15008492218 | Metonymy | One word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as crown for royalty). | 122 | |
| 15008492219 | Monosyllabic | Having or characterized by or consisting of one syllable. | 123 | |
| 15008492220 | Mood | The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. | 124 | |
| 15008492221 | motif | a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design | 125 | |
| 15008492222 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 126 | |
| 15008492223 | Nemesis | The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty. | 127 | |
| 15008492224 | neologism | a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses | 128 | |
| 15008492225 | Non Sequitur | This literally means "it does not follow". An argument by misdirection that is logically irrelevant. | 129 | |
| 15008492226 | Objectivity | Treatment of subject matter in an impersonal manner or from an outside view. | 130 | |
| 15008492227 | Omniscient | A third person narrator who sees into each character's mind and understands all the action going on. | 131 | |
| 15008492228 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean | 132 | |
| 15008492229 | Opposition | A pairing of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one. | 133 | |
| 15008492230 | Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. | 134 | |
| 15008492231 | Parable | A story that instructs. | 135 | |
| 15008492232 | Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. | 136 | |
| 15008492233 | Parallelism | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. | 137 | |
| 15008492234 | Paraphrase | To restate phrases and sentences in your own words. | 138 | |
| 15008492235 | Parenthetical phrase | A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail. | 139 | |
| 15008492236 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 140 | |
| 15008492237 | Passive Voice | The opposite of active voice; a sentence phrased so something happens to someone: Mordred was bitten by the dog. | 141 | |
| 15008492238 | Pathos | An appeal to emotion. May use loaded words to make you feel guilty, happy, angry, confused etc. | 142 | |
| 15008492239 | 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). | 143 | |
| 15008492240 | Pentameter | A poetic line with five feet. | 144 | |
| 15008492241 | 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. | 145 | |
| 15008492242 | Persona | The narrator in a non first-person novel. | 146 | |
| 15008492243 | Personification | When an inanimate object takes on human shape. | 147 | |
| 15008492244 | philippic | a strong verbal denunciation. The term comes from the orations of Demosthenes against Phlip of Macedonia in the fourth century. | 148 | |
| 15008492245 | Plaint | A poem or speech expressing sorrow. | 149 | |
| 15008492246 | Point of View | The perspective from which the action of a novel is presented. | 150 | |
| 15008492247 | Polysyllabic | Having or characterized by words of more than three syllables. | 151 | |
| 15008492248 | Polysyndeton | The use of consecutive coordinating conjunctions even when they are not needed. The effect is to render the reader somewhat breathless. | 152 | |
| 15008492249 | Prelude | An introductory poem to a longer work of verse | 153 | |
| 15008492250 | Prose | one of the major divisions of genre that refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms. | 154 | |
| 15008492251 | Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play | 155 | |
| 15008492252 | Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 156 | |
| 15008492253 | Red Herring | An argument that distracts the reader by raising issues irrelevant to the case. It is like being given too many suspects in a murder mystery. | 157 | |
| 15008492254 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 158 | |
| 15008492255 | Rhetoric | From the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 159 | |
| 15008492256 | rhetorical devices | literary techniques used to heighten the effectiveness of expression | 160 | |
| 15008492257 | Rhetorical question | A question that suggests an answer. | 161 | |
| 15008492258 | Rhetorical Shift | This occurs when the author of an essay significantly alters his or hers diction, syntax, or both. It isn't exactly a different writer who is writing, but it feels awfully close to it. Important to recognize because they are dramatic and usually occur at critical points in an argument. | 162 | |
| 15008492259 | Round character | a character who demonstrates some complexity and who develops or changes in the course of a work | 163 | |
| 15008492260 | Sarcasm | From the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," sarcasm involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. | 164 | |
| 15008492261 | Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule. | 165 | |
| 15008492262 | simile | A comparison using like or as | 166 | |
| 15008492263 | Simple Sentence | An independent clause. It has a subject and a verb, and that's pretty much it. The giant chopped down the bean tree. | 167 | |
| 15008492264 | Slang | Informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions | 168 | |
| 15008492265 | Slant (general) | A biased way of looking at or presenting something. | 169 | |
| 15008492266 | Simile | A figure of speech when what is unknown is compared to something that is known using "like," "as," or "than". | 170 | |
| 15008492267 | solecism | nonstandard grammatical usage; a violation of grammatical rules | 171 | |
| 15008492268 | 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. | 172 | |
| 15008492269 | Stock characters | Standard or clichéd character types. | 173 | |
| 15008492270 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind. | 174 | |
| 15008492271 | Subjectivity | A treatment of subject matter that uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional responses. | 175 | |
| 15008492272 | Subjunctive Mood | A grammatical situation involving the words "if" and "were," setting up a hypothetical situation. | 176 | |
| 15008492273 | Suggest | To imply, infer, indicate. | 177 | |
| 15008492274 | Summary | A simple retelling of what you've just read. | 178 | |
| 15008492275 | syllepsis | A kind of ellipsis in which one word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs. | 179 | |
| 15008492276 | 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. | 180 | |
| 15008492277 | Symbolism | A device in literature where an object represents an idea. | 181 | |
| 15008492278 | 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". | 182 | |
| 15008492279 | Synesthesia | when one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another. Ex: The sight of red ants makes you itchy. | 183 | |
| 15008492280 | Syntax | The ordering and structuring of words. | 184 | |
| 15008492281 | synthesis | To unite a variety of sources to achieve a common end. | 185 | |
| 15008492282 | Technique | The methods and tools of the author. | 186 | |
| 15008492283 | Tension | A feeling of excitement and expectation the reader or audience feels because of the conflict, mood, or atmosphere of the work. | 187 | |
| 15008492284 | Theme | The main idea of the overall work; the central idea. | 188 | |
| 15008492285 | Thesis | The main position of an argument. The writer's statement of purpose. | 189 | |
| 15008492286 | Tone | Similar to mood, it describes the author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both. Easier to determine in spoken language than in written. | 190 | |
| 15008492287 | Tragic flaw | In a tragedy, this is the weakness of a character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise. | 191 | |
| 15008492288 | Travesty | A grotesque parody | 192 | |
| 15008492289 | Truism | A way-too obvious truth | 193 | |
| 15008492290 | Understatement | the ironic minimalizing of fact; the opposite of hyperbole. | 194 | |
| 15008492291 | Unreliable narrator | When the first person narrator is crazy, a liar, very young, or for some reason not entirely credible | 195 | |
| 15008492292 | Utopia | An idealized place. Imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity, and peace. | 196 | |
| 15008492293 | verisimilitude | Similar to truth; quality of realism in a work that persuades the reader that he is getting a vision of life as is. | 197 | |
| 15008492294 | Wit | in modern usage, intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. Usually uses terse language that makes a pointed statement. | 198 | |
| 15008492295 | Zeugma | a sentence tied together by the same verb or noun. Especially acute if the noun or verb does not have the exact same meaning in both parts of the sentence. She dashed His hopes and out of his life when she waked through the door. | 199 |
