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| 4348572371 | act | a major unit of action in a drama or play. Each act can be further divided into smaller sections called scenes. | 0 | |
| 4348607598 | allegory | a story in which people, things and actions represent an idea about life; allegories often have a strong moral or lesson | 1 | |
| 4348613029 | alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words (tongue twisters) | 2 | |
| 4348629296 | allusion | a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature. Allusions are often indirect or brief references to well-known characters or events. | 3 | |
| 4348640758 | analogy | a comparison of two or more like objects that suggests if they are alike in certain respects, they will probably be alike in other ways as well. | 4 | |
| 4348649847 | anecdote | a brief account of an interesting incident or event that usually is intended to entertain or to make a point. | 5 | |
| 4348655173 | aside | an actor's speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. An aside is used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking. | 6 | |
| 4348660694 | assonance | repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry. | 7 | |
| 4348722019 | audience | the particular group of readers or viewers that the writer is addressing. A writer considers his or her audience when deciding on a subject, a purpose for writing and the tone and style in which to write. | 8 | |
| 4348731244 | ballad | is a poem that tells a story and is meant to be sung or recited. | 9 | |
| 4348736966 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | 10 | |
| 4348741367 | caesura | a pause or a sudden break in a line of poetry | 11 | |
| 4348765016 | caricature | a picture or imitation of a person's habits, physical appearance or mannerisms exaggerated in a comic or absurd way. | 12 | |
| 4348773333 | foil | a character who serves as a contrast or a conflict to another character | 13 | |
| 4348781006 | characterization | all of the techniques that writers use to create characters. | 14 | |
| 4348795944 | chronological order | the order in which events happen in time. | 15 | |
| 4348804539 | clarifying | the reader's process of pausing occasionally while reading to quickly review what he or she understands. By clarifying as they read, good readers are able to draw conclusions about what is suggested but not stated directly. | 16 | |
| 4348809853 | cliché | a type of figurative language containing an overused expression or a saying that is no longer considered original. | 17 | |
| 4348821616 | comedy | a dramatic work that is light and often humorous in tone and usually ends happily with a peaceful resolution of the main conflict | 18 | |
| 4348828325 | concrete poetry | a type of poetry that uses its physical or visual form to present its message. | 19 | |
| 4348833557 | central conflict | the dominant or most important conflict in the story | 20 | |
| 4348846332 | external conflict | the problem or struggle that exists between the main character and an outside force. (ex: person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. nature, person vs. the supernatural, person vs. technology, etc.) | 21 | |
| 4348850133 | internal conflict | the problem or struggle that takes place in the main character's mind (person vs. self). | 22 | |
| 4348855038 | connecting | a reader's process of relating the content of a literary work to his or her own knowledge and experience. | 23 | |
| 4348861572 | connotation | the idea and feeling associated with a word as opposed to its dictionary definition or denotation. | 24 | |
| 4348864741 | consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within a line of poetry. Alliteration is a specific type of consonance. | 25 | |
| 4348870265 | couplet | a rhymed pair of lines in a poem. | 26 | |
| 4348877597 | denotation | is the opposite of connotation in that it is the exact or dictionary meaning of a word. | 27 | |
| 4348877598 | denouement | see plot | 28 | |
| 4348881984 | dialect | a form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people. | 29 | |
| 4348886614 | elegy | a type of literature defined as a song or poem that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died. | 30 | |
| 4348889948 | enjambment | in poetry, the running over of a line or thought into the next of verse | 31 | |
| 4348893165 | epigram | a short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm. | 32 | |
| 4348896096 | epic | a long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero whose actions reflect the ideals and values of a nation or group | 33 | |
| 4348898722 | epiphany | a sudden moment of understanding that causes a character to change or to act in a certain way | 34 | |
| 4348903317 | epitaph | a short poem or verse written in memory of someone | 35 | |
| 4348910957 | evaluating | the process of judging the value of something or someone. A work of literature can be evaluated in terms of such criteria as entertainment, believability, originality, and emotional power | 36 | |
| 4348914645 | extended metaphor | a figure of speech that compares two essentially unlike things in great length. | 37 | |
| 4348920927 | fable | a brief tale that teaches a lesson about human nature. Fables often feature animals as characters | 38 | |
| 4348926962 | fantasy | a work of literature that contains at least one fantastic or unreal element. | 39 | |
| 4348930188 | folklore | traditions, customs and stories that are passed down within a culture. Folklore contains various types of literature such as legends, folktales, myths, and fables. | 40 | |
| 4348935011 | folktale | a simple story that has been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Folktales are told primarily to entertain rather than to explain or teach a lesson. | 41 | |
| 4348939453 | foot | a unit of meter within a line of poetry | 42 | |
| 4348945436 | foreshadowing | when the writer provides clues or hints that suggest or predict future event in a story. | 43 | |
| 4348952632 | generalization | a broad statement about an entire group. | 44 | |
| 4348965296 | genre | a type or category of literature. The four main literary genres include: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama | 45 | |
| 4348972590 | heroic couplet or closed couplet | a couplet consisting of two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought. | 46 | |
| 4348976039 | historical fiction | fiction that explores a past time period and may contain references to actual people and events of the past. | 47 | |
| 4348979256 | horror fiction | fiction that contains mysterious and often supernatural events to create a sense of terror. | 48 | |
| 4348984132 | humor | the quality that provokes laughter or amusement. Writers create humor through exaggeration, sarcasm, amusing descriptions, irony, and witty dialogue. | 49 | |
| 4348988367 | hyperbole | a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect. | 50 | |
| 4349006592 | idiom | a phrase or expression that means something different from what the words actually say (for example, using the phrase "over his head" instead of "He doesn't understand"). | 51 | |
| 4349010566 | imagery | the use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste | 52 | |
| 4349013278 | inference | is a logical guess based on evidence based on evidence in the text. | 53 | |
| 4349018961 | irony | a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens. Irony spices up a literary work by adding unexpected twists and allowing the reader to become more involved with the characters and plot. | 54 | |
| 4349023673 | verbal irony | occurs when the speaker means something totally different than what he or she is saying and often times the opposite of what a character is saying is true. | 55 | |
| 4349028476 | dramatic irony | occurs when facts are not known to the characters in a work of literature but are known by the audience | 56 | |
| 4349033255 | cosmic irony | suggests that some unknown force brings about dire and dreadful events. | 57 | |
| 4349036190 | irony of situation | the difference between what is expected to happen and the way events actually work out. | 58 | |
| 4349042457 | legend | a story handed down from the past about a specific person, usually someone of heroic accomplishments. | 59 | |
| 4349062781 | motif | a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. A motif may also be two contrasting elements in a work, such as good and evil. A motif is important because it allows one to see main points and themes that the author is trying to express, in order that one might be able to interpret the work more accurately. | 60 | |
| 4349068023 | motivation | the reason why a character acts, feels or thinks in a certain way. | 61 | |
| 4349071925 | myth | a traditional story that attempts to explain how the world was created or why the world is the way that it is. Myths are stories that are passed on from generation to generation and are of unknown authorship | 62 | |
| 4349081824 | narrative poetry | poetry that tells a story. A narrative poem can come in many forms and styles, both complex and simple, short or long, as long as it tells a story. Like fiction, narrative poetry contains characters, settings and plots. | 63 | |
| 4349086615 | unreliable narrator | one who gives his or her own understanding of a story, instead of the explanation and interpretation the author wishes the audience to obtain. This type of action tends to alter the audience's opinion of the conclusion. | 64 | |
| 4349093240 | nonfiction | is prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, objects or events. Some examples of nonfiction include autobiographies, newspaper articles, biographies, essays, etc. | 65 | |
| 4349097973 | ode | a lyric poem of some length, usually of serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal structure | 66 | |
| 4349101739 | onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sound suggest their meaning (ex. buzz, bang, hiss). | 67 | |
| 4349106626 | oral history | stories of people's lives related by word of mouth. These histories usually include both factual material and personal reactions. | 68 | |
| 4349113053 | oxymoron | a form of figurative language combining contradictory words or ideas (ex. jumbo shrimp, bittersweet). | 69 | |
| 4349117962 | paradox | a statement that seems to contradict itself but is, nevertheless, true. | 70 | |
| 4349121047 | parallelism | the use of similar grammatical constructions to express ideas that are related or equal in importance. For example: The sun rises. The sun sets. | 71 | |
| 4349124654 | paraphrasing | the restatement of a text by readers in their own words or in another form. | 72 | |
| 4349132361 | parody | a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author's work for comic effect or ridicule. | 73 | |
| 4349153496 | exposition | introduces the characters and the conflicts they face. | 74 | |
| 4349158494 | inciting incident | occurs after the exposition and introduces the central conflict within the story. | 75 | |
| 4349165145 | resolution or denouement | occurs after the climax and is where conflicts are resolved and loose ends are tied up. | 76 | |
| 4349168298 | subplot | an additional minor plot that involves a secondary conflict in the story; the subplot may or may not affect the main plot. | 77 | |
| 4349178887 | propaganda | text that uses false or misleading information to present a slanted point of view. | 78 | |
| 4349182011 | prose | the ordinary form of spoken and written language; that is, language that lacks the special features of poetry. Examples of prose include: essays, stories, articles, speeches, etc. | 79 | |
| 4349186333 | refrain | repetition in literature of one or more lines at regular intervals; sometimes called the chorus. | 80 | |
| 4349192820 | satire | a literary technique in which ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society. | 81 | |
| 4349209669 | scanning | the process of searching through writing for a particular fact or piece of information | 82 | |
| 4349213174 | sensory details | words and phrases that help readers see, hear, taste, feel, or smell what an author is describing. | 83 | |
| 4349223071 | soliloquy | a speech delivered by a character who is alone on the stage. | 84 | |
| 4349237240 | story mapping | a visual organizer that helps a reader understand a work of literature by tracking setting, characters, events and conflicts | 85 | |
| 4349239599 | style | how a writer says something; many elements contribute to style, including word choice, sentence length, tone and figurative language | 86 | |
| 4349244021 | summarizing | the process of briefly recounting the main ideas of a piece of writing in a person's own words, while omitting unimportant details | 87 | |
| 4349246304 | suspense | a feeling of growing tension and excitement. Writers create suspense by raising questions in readers' minds about what might happen | 88 | |
| 4349251522 | symbolism | using something specific to stand for something else, especially an idea. A symbol is a person, place, object or action that for something beyond itself. For example, a dove may represent peace. The dove can be seen and peace cannot | 89 | |
| 4349259627 | synecdoche | a literary technique in which the whole is represented by naming one of its parts (genus named for species), or vice versa (species named for genus). Example: "You've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels." The vehicle here is represented by its parts, or wheels. | 90 | |
| 4349263892 | tone | the writer's attitude or feeling about his or her subject. | 91 | |
| 4349267541 | tragedy | a dramatic work that presents the downfall of a dignified character or characters who are involved in historically or socially significant events. The events in a tragic plot are set in motion by a decision that is often an error in judgment. Succeeding events inevitably lead to a disastrous conclusion, usually death. | 92 | |
| 4349272123 | understatement | a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said; the opposite of hyperbole. Understatement is usually used for a humorous effect. | 93 | |
| 4349277768 | urban legend | a contemporary story that is told in many rumored versions that have little basis in fact. | 94 | |
| 4349282777 | voice | an author or narrator's distinctive style or manner of expression. Voice can reveal much about the author or narrator's personality. | 95 | |
| 4348874553 | denotation | is the opposite of connotation in that it is the exact or dictionary meaning of a word. | 96 |
