Terms : Hide Images
| 10399066777 | 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." | 0 | |
| 10399066778 | adjective | a word that modifies (describes) a noun or pronoun | 1 | |
| 10399066779 | adverb | a word that describes a verb/action | 2 | |
| 10399066780 | allegory | a story in which everything is a symbol | 3 | |
| 10399066781 | alliteration | tongue twister; close words starting with same letter | 4 | |
| 10399066782 | allusion | a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize | 5 | |
| 10399066783 | ambiguity | a vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation | 6 | |
| 10399066784 | analogy | drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect | 7 | |
| 10399066785 | anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses | 8 | |
| 10399066786 | antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers | 9 | |
| 10399066787 | antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting ideas. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraphs. "To be or not to be . . ." "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times . . ." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country . . ." | 10 | |
| 10399066788 | aphorism | A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life. | 11 | |
| 10399066789 | apostrophe | a figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or some abstraction | 12 | |
| 10399066790 | appeal to authority | Appeals to an authority to support a position, idea, argument, or course of action | 13 | |
| 10399066791 | appeal to ignorance | Assumption that whatever cannot be proven false must be true (or vice versa). "No one can prove that the Loch Ness monster doesn't exist, so therefore, it does exist." | 14 | |
| 10399066792 | assonance | close words have the same vowel sounds. E.g. "black cat" or "frozen snow" | 15 | |
| 10399066793 | asyndeton | a list without conjunctions example: "we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe" (JFK's inaugural address) | 16 | |
| 10399066794 | chiasmus (kee-as-mus) | a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("susan walked in, and out rushed mary.") | 17 | |
| 10399066795 | circular argument | a logical fallacy in which the writer or speaker assumes the statement under examination to be true (begging the question); E.g. Freedom of speech is important because people should be able to speak freely. | 18 | |
| 10399066796 | claim | An arguable statement, which may be a claim of fact, value, or policy. | 19 | |
| 10399066797 | clause | (grammar) an expression including a subject and predicate but not constituting a complete sentence | 20 | |
| 10399066798 | climax | the point of highest interest, the conflict must be resolved one way or another or a character begins to take action to end the conflict | 21 | |
| 10399066799 | colloquial | informal spoken language or conversation | 22 | |
| 10399066800 | concession or lending credence | a reluctant acknowledgment or yielding | 23 | |
| 10399066801 | confirmation | The main part of a text in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated. | 24 | |
| 10399066802 | conjunction | The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Example: FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so | 25 | |
| 10399066803 | connotation | the implied or associative meaning of a word; emotional meaning behind a word. E.g. Red signifies passion. | 26 | |
| 10399066804 | deduction | Reasoning from general to specific | 27 | |
| 10399066805 | denotation | dictionary meaning of a word; E.g. Red is a color in the light spectrum. | 28 | |
| 10399066806 | dialect | the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people (how people talk depending on where they are) | 29 | |
| 10399066807 | diction | word choice | 30 | |
| 10399066808 | didactic | instructive, designed to teach | 31 | |
| 10399066809 | ethos | The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator | 32 | |
| 10399066810 | eulogy | a formal speech praising a person who has died | 33 | |
| 10399066811 | euphemism | a mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term E.g. He "passed away" --instead of died. | 34 | |
| 10399066812 | extended metaphor | The comparison between two things is continued beyond the first point of comparison. This extends and deepens a description. | 35 | |
| 10399066813 | fallacy | a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning (failed argument) | 36 | |
| 10399066814 | false dilemma | A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in fact more options are available. (same as either/or fallacy or black/white fallacy or false dichotomy) | 37 | |
| 10399066815 | figurative language/ figures of speech | writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally | 38 | |
| 10399066816 | flashback | a scene or event from the past that appears in a narrative out of chronological order, to fill in information or explain something in the present | 39 | |
| 10399066817 | hasty generalization fallacy | Drawing a conclusion based on a small sample size, rather than looking at statistics that are much more in line with the typical or average situation. | 40 | |
| 10399066818 | hyperbole | exaggeration | 41 | |
| 10399066819 | imagery | descriptions that appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell | 42 | |
| 10399066820 | induction | reasoning from detailed facts to general principles | 43 | |
| 10399066821 | invective | (n.) a strong denunciation or condemnation; abusive language; (adj.) abusive, vituperative | 44 | |
| 10399066822 | irony | (unexpected twist) a use of words in which the intended meaning is very different from the literal sense; an incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs, esp. one that suggests a lesson about human folly | 45 | |
| 10399066823 | jargon | specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject. E.g. Teachers say "facilitating instruction" and "text dependent questions" | 46 | |
| 10399066824 | litotes | an understatement used to underscore a greater point; E.g. July 4th is not a dull day. ... like a double negative | 47 | |
| 10399066825 | loose sentence | a complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and the subordinate clause follows | 48 | |
| 10399066826 | metaphor | comparison | 49 | |
| 10399066827 | metonymy | substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it ("The pen [writing] is mightier than the sword [war/fighting].") | 50 | |
| 10399066828 | mode of discourse | The way in which information is presented in a text. The four traditional modes are narration, description, exposition, and argument. | 51 | |
| 10399066829 | mood | atmosphere; feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage | 52 | |
| 10399066830 | narrative | story | 53 | |
| 10399066831 | noun | person, place, thing, or idea | 54 | |
| 10399066832 | onomatopoeia | a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum. | 55 | |
| 10399066833 | oxymoron | conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence') | 56 | |
| 10399066834 | paradox | a statement that seems contradictory or absurd but that expresses a truth | 57 | |
| 10399066835 | parallelism | similarity in structure and syntax in a series of related words, phrases, clauses, sentences, or paragraphs that develops balance. E.g. The boy went swimmING, bikING, and sailING this summer. | 58 | |
| 10399066836 | parody | a work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner | 59 | |
| 10399066837 | pathos | A quality, as of an experience or a work of art, that arouses feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow | 60 | |
| 10399066838 | periodic sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. The independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. The effect is to add emphasis and structural variety. | 61 | |
| 10399066839 | personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 62 | |
| 10399066840 | point of view | the perspective from which a story is told | 63 | |
| 10399066841 | predicate | one of the two main constituents of a sentence | 64 | |
| 10399066842 | pronoun | a word that takes the place of a noun; E.g. he, she, it, they, them, I, you | 65 | |
| 10399066843 | prose | writing that is not poetry | 66 | |
| 10399066844 | refutation/ counterargument/ rebuttal | The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. | 67 | |
| 10399066845 | rhetoric | study of persuasion | 68 | |
| 10399066846 | rhetorical question | figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer | 69 | |
| 10399066847 | sarcasm | from the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," ___ involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. It may use irony as a device. | 70 | |
| 10399066848 | satire | form of literature in which irony, sarcasm, and ridicule are employed to attack human vice and folly | 71 | |
| 10399066849 | simile | comparing two things using like or as | 72 | |
| 10399066850 | style | a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period | 73 | |
| 10399066851 | subject | the noun or subject pronoun that the sentence is about | 74 | |
| 10399066852 | syllogism | a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. A=B, B=C, so A=C. "All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal." | 75 | |
| 10399066853 | subordination/ subordinate clauses | Words, phrases, and clauses that make one element of a sentence dependent on (or subordinate to) another. Contrast with coordination. | 76 | |
| 10399066854 | symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else | 77 | |
| 10399066855 | synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword). | 78 | |
| 10399066856 | syntax | the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences | 79 | |
| 10399066857 | thesis | the statement in the first paragraph that will be proved throughout the passage | 80 | |
| 10399066858 | tone | author's attitude | 81 | |
| 10399066859 | transition | a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. (first, next, another...) | 82 | |
| 10399066860 | understatement | a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants | 83 | |
| 10399066861 | verb | The part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. | 84 | |
| 10399066862 | voice | active voice: the subject does the action; e.g. Joe threw the ball. passive voice: something is done to the subject. e.g. The ball was thrown to Bill. | 85 | |
| 10399066863 | zeugma | a literary term for using one word to modify two other words, in two different ways. An example of a zeugma is, "She broke his car and his heart." | 86 | |
| 10399066864 | independent clause | a clause in a complex sentence that can stand alone as a complete sentence | 87 | |
| 10399066865 | dependent clause | a clause in a complex sentence that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and that functions within the sentence as a noun or adjective or adverb | 88 | |
| 10399066866 | clause | (grammar) an expression including a subject and predicate but not constituting a complete sentence | 89 | |
| 10399066867 | complex sentence | a sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause | 90 | |
| 10399066868 | compound sentence | a sentence composed of at least two independent clauses | 91 | |
| 10399066869 | anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses | 92 | |
| 10399066870 | epistrophe | repetition of the ends of two or more successive sentences, verses, etc. | 93 | |
| 10399066871 | apostrophe | a figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or some abstraction | 94 | |
| 10399066872 | appositive or apposition | Figure of balance that is usually set aside by commas, used for elaboration of a bigger term into more specifics. "And so I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me." "Mexico City, the largest city in the world, has many interesting archaeological sites." | 95 | |
| 10399066873 | oxymoron | conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence') | 96 | |
| 10399066874 | anecdote | short account of an incident (especially a biographical one) | 97 | |
| 10399066875 | cliche | a worn-out idea or overused expression. E.g. "finding your way" | 98 | |
| 10399066876 | juxtaposition | placing two elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast | 99 |
