Terms : Hide Images
| 6393469680 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 0 | |
| 6393472046 | Alliteration | Repetition of consonant sounds | 1 | |
| 6393472660 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. There are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion. | 2 | |
| 6393473401 | Ambiguity | Uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language | 3 | |
| 6393474074 | Anachronism | Something that is not in its correct historical time; a mistake in chronology, such as by assigning a person or event to the wrong time period | 4 | |
| 6393475142 | Anaphora | A rhetorical figure of repetition in which the same word or phrase is repeated in (and usually at the beginning of) successive lines, clauses, or sentences. | 5 | |
| 6393479501 | Antagonist | A character or force in conflict with the main character | 6 | |
| 6393479502 | Protagonist | Main character | 7 | |
| 6393480513 | Anthropomorphism | The attribution of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects | 8 | |
| 6393483564 | Antithesis | Direct opposite | 9 | |
| 6393484456 | 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 | 10 | |
| 6393485772 | Aside | A device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech which is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play | 11 | |
| 6393486924 | Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity | 12 | |
| 6393486925 | Consonance | Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity. | 13 | |
| 6393488157 | Asyndeton | A construction in which elements are presented in a series without conjunctions | 14 | |
| 6393489260 | Polysyndeton | Deliberate use of many conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted | 15 | |
| 6393490844 | Bathos | insincere or overly sentimental quality of writing/speech intended to evoke pity | 16 | |
| 6393491837 | Cacophony | A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds | 17 | |
| 6393492323 | Euphony | pleasant, harmonious sound | 18 | |
| 6393493292 | Catharsis | An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety | 19 | |
| 6393494505 | Chiasmus | A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary.") | 20 | |
| 6393495677 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation. | 21 | |
| 6393497186 | Connotation | All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests | 22 | |
| 6393497187 | Denotation | The dictionary definition of a word | 23 | |
| 6393499298 | Deus ex machina | an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel | 24 | |
| 6393499980 | Diction | A writer's or speaker's choice of words | 25 | |
| 6393501182 | Ethos | Credibility | 26 | |
| 6393501183 | Logos | Logical appeal | 27 | |
| 6393502173 | Pathos | Emotional appeal | 28 | |
| 6393503428 | Euphemism | An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant | 29 | |
| 6393504108 | Farce | A comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose. | 30 | |
| 6393505226 | Foil | A character who is in most ways opposite to the main character (protagonist) or one who is nearly the same as the protagonist. The purpose of the foil character is to emphasize the traits of the main character by contrast only | 31 | |
| 6393505934 | Foreshadowing | A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader. | 32 | |
| 6393507823 | Hubris | Excessive pride or self-confidence | 33 | |
| 6393507824 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor | 34 | |
| 6393508631 | In media res | in the middle of things | 35 | |
| 6393509515 | Irony | A contrast between expectation and reality | 36 | |
| 6393510278 | Juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts | 37 | |
| 6393511116 | Litotes | A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. | 38 | |
| 6393512265 | Loose sentence | A type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses | 39 | |
| 6393698583 | Metaphor | A comparison that establishes a figurative identity between objects being compared. | 40 | |
| 6393698584 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it | 41 | |
| 6393699597 | Mood | Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader | 42 | |
| 6393701732 | Motif | A recurring theme, subject or idea | 43 | |
| 6393701733 | Non sequitir | a statement that does not logically follow the previous statement | 44 | |
| 6393703058 | Onomatepoeia | formation of a word by imitation of a sound | 45 | |
| 6393704182 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. | 46 | |
| 6393706411 | Parable | A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson | 47 | |
| 6393707489 | Paradox | A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. | 48 | |
| 6393709485 | Parallelism | The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns. | 49 | |
| 6393711540 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 50 | |
| 6393712850 | Pathetic fallacy | faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects | 51 | |
| 6393714185 | Periodic sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. | 52 | |
| 6393715182 | Persona | An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. | 53 | |
| 6393716233 | Personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 54 | |
| 6393716234 | Pun | A play on words | 55 | |
| 6393722324 | Satire | A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies. | 56 | |
| 6393723798 | Simile | A comparison using "like" or "as" | 57 | |
| 6393723834 | Soliloquy | A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage | 58 | |
| 6393724584 | Stock character | a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality manner of speech and other characteristics. Stock characters are instantly recognizable to members of a given culture. | 59 | |
| 6393726337 | Stream of conciousness | a style of writing in which the thoughts and feelings of the writer are recorded as they occur | 60 | |
| 6393726338 | Symbol | A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. | 61 | |
| 6393727396 | Symbolism | The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. | 62 | |
| 6393730313 | Synechdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something us used to represent the whorle, or occassionally, the whole is used to represent a part. Examples: To refer to a boat as a "sail"; to refer to a car as "wheels"; to referr to the violins, violas, etc. in an orchestra as "the strings". **Different tan metynomy, in whcih one thing is represented by another thing that is commonly physically associated withi it (but is not necessarily part of it), i.e., regerring to a monarch as "the crown" or the President as "The White House". | 63 | |
| 6393731348 | Synesthesia | describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound") | 64 | |
| 6393732118 | Syntax | Sentence structure | 65 | |
| 6393732119 | Tone | A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels. | 66 | |
| 6393734104 | Tragic flaw | A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. | 67 | |
| 6393735337 | Tragic hero | A literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy | 68 | |
| 6393736466 | Trope | Artful diction; the use of language in a nonliteral way; also called a figure of speech. | 69 | |
| 6393737866 | Verisimilitude | the appearance of being true or real | 70 | |
| 6393741326 | Narrative poem | a poem that tells a story | 71 | |
| 6393742737 | Epic poem | A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds | 72 | |
| 6393745177 | Lyric poem | A short poem of songlike quality | 73 | |
| 6393745178 | Sonnet | 14 line poem | 74 | |
| 6393746442 | Sestina | 6 six-line stanzas ending with tercet; last words of each line in 1st stanza are repeated as last words in next stanza | 75 | |
| 6393747641 | villanelle | A 19 line form using only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern | 76 | |
| 6393748743 | Stanza | A group of lines in a poem | 77 | |
| 6393749622 | Couplet | A pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem. | 78 | |
| 6393751956 | Heroic couplet | Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs. | 79 | |
| 6393755248 | Tercet | 3 line stanza | 80 | |
| 6393755249 | Quatrain | A four line stanza | 81 | |
| 6393757196 | Cinquain | 5 line stanza | 82 | |
| 6393758045 | Sestet | 6 line stanza | 83 | |
| 6393761316 | Octave | 8 line stanza | 84 | |
| 6393761317 | Foot | The basic unit of verse meter consisting of any of various fixed combinations or groups of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables | 85 | |
| 6393765319 | Iamb | A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable. | 86 | |
| 6393765320 | Trochee | Stressed, unstressed | 87 | |
| 6393767029 | Spondee | Stressed, stressed | 88 | |
| 6393768202 | Dactyl | A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables | 89 | |
| 6393769334 | Anapest | unstressed, unstressed, stressed | 90 | |
| 6393769335 | Pentameter | a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet | 91 | |
| 6393770613 | Tetrameter | a line of verse consisting of four metrical feet | 92 | |
| 6393772772 | Blank verse | Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter | 93 | |
| 6393775706 | End-stopped line | A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation | 94 | |
| 6393777445 | Enjambment | A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next. | 95 | |
| 6393777446 | Caesura | A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line. | 96 | |
| 6393778141 | Aubade | A love lyric in which the speaker complains about the arrival of the dawn, when he must part from his lover. | 97 | |
| 6393779699 | Ballad | A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas, characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style. | 98 | |
| 6393781798 | Elegy | a sorrowful poem or speech | 99 | |
| 6393782669 | Epigram | A brief witty poem, often satirical. | 100 | |
| 6393784425 | Ode | A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 101 | |
| 6393786328 | Pastoral | A work of literature dealing with rural life | 102 | |
| 6393786366 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. | 103 | |
| 6393788069 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. | 104 | |
| 6393789129 | Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem. | 105 | |
| 6393790546 | Shift | A change in mood, tone, and diction | 106 | |
| 6393796686 | Scansion | The process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain (rhythm) | 107 |
