Terms : Hide Images
| 4183333313 | allegory | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one | 0 | |
| 4183333314 | alliteration | sound device; repetition of initial (beginning) consonant sounds. | 1 | |
| 4183333315 | allusion | figure of speech which makes brief reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object; a reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work. | 2 | |
| 4183333316 | anachronism | something out of its place in time or history. Ex: Julius Caesar riding a motorcycle. | 3 | |
| 4183333317 | analogy | the comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical purpose of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended. | 4 | |
| 4183333318 | antagonist | the character in a narrative or play who is in conflict with the main character; an antagonist may not even be a person -- or may be the same person as the main character | 5 | |
| 4183333319 | anthropomorphism | the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. | 6 | |
| 4183333320 | anti-hero | a protagonist who is the antithesis of the hero - graceless, inept, stupid, sometimes dishonest | 7 | |
| 4183333321 | antithesis | figure of speech in which a thought is balanced with a contrasting thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases. Also, the second of two contrasting or opposing constituents, following the thesis. | 8 | |
| 4183333322 | apostrophe | addressing someone or something, usually not present, as though present. Often, apostrophe is to a god, ghost, or some supernatural thing, like Death, Night, or Fate. It may also be to a person, if the person isn't there, or if the speaker doesn't think the person is there | 9 | |
| 4183333323 | archetype | a very typical example of a certain person or thing | 10 | |
| 4183333324 | assonance | similarity or repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words, especially in a line of verse. | 11 | |
| 4183333325 | ballad | This is a narrative poem describing a past happening that is sometimes romantic but always ends catastrophically. The saga described is usually in an impersonal voice with the speaker some distance from the action. Ordinarily a ballad is written in quatrains with four accented syllables in the first and third lines and three accented syllables in the second and fourth lines; the shorter lines usually rhyme | 12 | |
| 4183333326 | bildungsroman (German: growth novel) | a novel showing the development of its central character from childhood to maturity. . . psychological approach and movement toward a goal | 13 | |
| 4183333327 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter; metrical verse with no ending rhyme (Shakespeare) | 14 | |
| 4183333328 | cacophony | a combination of harsh, unpleasant sounds which create an effect of discordance. Its opposite is euphony. | 15 | |
| 4183333329 | caesura | a pause for effect in the middle of a line of poetry; (period, dash, semicolon, etc.) it may or may not affect the meter. In scansion, a caesura is usually indicated by the following symbol (//). | 16 | |
| 4183333330 | caricature | a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect | 17 | |
| 4183333331 | characterization | the method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work. Personality may be revealed (1) by what the character says about himself or herself; (2) by what others reveal about the character; and (3) by the character's own actions. | 18 | |
| 4183333332 | chiasmus | repetition in successive clauses which are usually parallel in syntax. An inverted parallelism; the reversal of the order of corresponding words or phrases (with or without exact repetition) in successive clauses which are usually parallel in syntax, as in Pope's "A fop their passion, but their prize a sot," or Goldsmith's "to stop too fearful, and too faint to go." | 19 | |
| 4183333333 | circumlocution | the use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive | 20 | |
| 4183333334 | cliché | a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. | 21 | |
| 4183333335 | climax | the turning point, or crisis, in a play or other piece of literature | 22 | |
| 4183333336 | comic relief | something of humor interrupts an otherwise serious, often tragic, literary work; a humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work. In many instances these moments enhance the thematic significance of the story in addition to providing laughter. | 23 | |
| 4183333337 | connotation | the emotional implications that a word may carry; implied or associated meaning for a particular word. | 24 | |
| 4183333338 | consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry. Ex: But yet we trust | 25 | |
| 4183333339 | denotation | the specific, exact meaning of a word; a dictionary definition | 26 | |
| 4183333340 | denouement | the resolution of a plot after the climax | 27 | |
| 4183333341 | diction | an author's choice of words—Ex: simple, sophisticated, colloquial, formal, or informal. | 28 | |
| 4183333342 | drama | story performed by actors on a stage | 29 | |
| 4183333343 | dramatic irony | irony in which the character use words which mean one thing to them, but another to those who understand the situation better | 30 | |
| 4183333344 | dynamic character | someone who undergoes an important, internal change because of the action in the plot | 31 | |
| 4183333345 | dystopia | the opposite of a utopia; a controlled world where pain exists instead of pleasure | 32 | |
| 4183333346 | enjambment | line of verse that carries over into next line without a pause of any kind | 33 | |
| 4183333347 | epic | a long narrative, usually written in elevated language, which related the adventures of a hero upon whom rests the fate of a nation | 34 | |
| 4183333348 | epiphany | an awakening; a sudden understanding or burst of insight; key moment in Greek plays | 35 | |
| 4183333349 | epithet | nickname or appellation, Ex:, "Helen of the white arms" in the Iliad | 36 | |
| 4183333350 | euphemism | substitute word(s) that sounds better than another; the use of inoffensive or neutral words to describe a harsher, more serious concept. It reduces the risk that the listener will be upset or offended. Ex: people "pass away", instead of "Die". Euphemisms soften the blow of unhappy news or truths. | 37 | |
| 4183333351 | euphony | a quality of style marked by pleasing, harmonious sounds, the opposite of cacophony | 38 | |
| 4183333352 | exposition | the introductory material which sets the tone, gives the setting, introduces the characters, and supplies necessary facts; may be the first section of the typical plot, in which characters are introduced, the setting is described, and any necessary background information is given. Sometimes there is a lot, and the exposition stretches out; sometimes and the expository information is tucked in unobtrusively as people talk to each other or inside the narrator's descriptions. | 39 | |
| 4183333353 | eye rhyme | a form of rhyme wherein the look rather than the sound is important. Ex: "Cough" and "tough" do not sound enough alike to constitute a rhyme. However, if these two words appeared at the ends of successive lines of poetry, they would be considered eye rhyme. | 40 | |
| 4183333354 | falling action | everything that happens in plot between the climax or crisis and the denouement | 41 | |
| 4183333355 | false dichotomy | two extremes in a continuum of intermediate possibilities. Ex: either you love your country or you hate it. OR If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem | 42 | |
| 4183333356 | flat character | a character who is not fully developed by an author; character who has only one outstanding trait or feature, or at the most a few distinguishing marks. | 43 | |
| 4183333357 | foil | character who provides a contrast to another character, thus emphasizing the other's traits; a character in a play who sets off the main character or other characters by comparison. | 44 | |
| 4183333358 | foot | a unit of meter; a metrical foot can have two or three syllables; the basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry. A foot is the smallest repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line. A line of meter is described by the kind of meter and the number of feet. | 45 | |
| 4183333359 | Iamb | A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable. | 46 | |
| 4183333360 | Trochee | A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable (bar-ter). | 47 | |
| 4183333361 | Anapest | A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable (un-der-stand). | 48 | |
| 4183333362 | Dactyl | A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables (mer-ri-ly) | 49 | |
| 4183333363 | Pyrrhic | A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables | 50 | |
| 4183333364 | Spondee | A metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally or almost equally accented ( true-blue) | 51 | |
| 4183333365 | foreshadowing | the arrangement and presentation of events and information in such a way that prepare for later events in a work | 52 | |
| 4183333366 | form | the structure, shape, pattern, organization, or style of a piece of literature | 53 | |
| 4183333367 | frame | a narrative constructed so that one or more stories are embedded within another story. Also called a frame story. | 54 | |
| 4183333368 | hubris | the pride or overconfidence which often leads a hero to overlook divine warning or to break a moral law | 55 | |
| 4183333369 | hyperbole | exaggeration for effect and emphasis, overstatement; figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs. | 56 | |
| 4183333370 | iambic pentameter | A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line. | 57 | |
| 4183333371 | idioms | expressions that do not translate exactly into what a speaker means; idioms are culturally relevant; when a person uses an idiomatic expression, he or she truly "thinks" in the language. | 58 | |
| 4183333372 | imagery | devices which appeal to the senses. A group of words that create a mental "picture" (ie., animal, water, death, plant, decay, war, etc.) | 59 | |
| 4183333373 | auditory imagery | sound imagery. It appeals to the sense of hearing. Ex: "The tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast, faint; a sound weird, appealing...as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian church community." | 60 | |
| 4183333374 | gustatory imagery | imagery appealing to the sense of taste | 61 | |
| 4183333375 | kinetic imagery | imagery that appeals to movement. Ex: The flies flew around our heads methodically, never ceasing their obnoxious spinning and swirling | 62 | |
| 4183333376 | olfactory imagery | appeals to the sense of smell. Ex: The rotten hippo-meat filled the jungle air with its sour, putrid smell | 63 | |
| 4183333377 | tactile imagery | type of imagery pertaining to the sense of touch. Ex: The fuzzy puppy's warm wet tongue covered my face | 64 | |
| 4183333378 | visual imagery | type of imagery that appeals to the sense of sight. Ex: From the lighthouse tower shone a glowing beam that streaked across the black waters | 65 | |
| 4183333379 | inverted sentence | reversing the normal subject - verb - complement order. Poets do this sometimes to conform to normal rhyme and rhythm patterns. Prose writers sometimes do this for emphasis. | 66 | |
| 4183333380 | irony | surprising, amusing, or interesting contrast between reality and expectation. In irony of situation, the result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected. In dramatic irony, the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. In verbal irony, the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant. A character may refer to a plan as "brilliant," while actually meaning that (s)he thinks the plan is foolish. Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony | 67 | |
| 4183333381 | juxtaposition | the positioning of ideas or images side by side for emphasis or to show contrast—Ex: In Romeo & Juliet, love and hate are juxtaposed as the two teenagers' love is forced into the same arena as the families' hatred | 68 | |
| 4183333382 | kenning | a compound expression in Old English and Old Norse poetry with metaphorical meaning, Ex: oar-steed = ship | 69 | |
| 4183333383 | malapropism | the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in. Ex: "dance a flamingo " (instead offlamenco ). | 70 | |
| 4183333384 | melodrama | a play based upon a dramatic plot and developed sensationally; a type of drama related to tragedy but featuring sensational incidents, emphasizing plot at the expense of characterization, relying on cruder conflicts (virtuous protagonist versus villainous antagonist), and having a happy ending in which good triumphs over evil | 71 | |
| 4183333385 | metaphor | a figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words "like" or "as." | 72 | |
| 4183333386 | meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem; classified according both to its pattern and the number of feet to the line. Meter is a patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Below is a list of classifications: | 73 | |
| 4183333387 | Monometer | one foot to a line | 74 | |
| 4183333388 | Dimeter | two feet | 75 | |
| 4183333389 | Trimeter | three feet | 76 | |
| 4183333390 | Tetrameter | four feet | 77 | |
| 4183333391 | Pentameter | five feet to a line. | 78 | |
| 4183333392 | metonymy | substituting a word naming an object for another word closely associated with it. Ex: Pay tribute to the crown; figure of speech in which a word represents something else which it suggests. For example in a herd of fifty cows, the herd might be referred to as fifty head of cattle. The word "head" is the word representing the herd. | 79 | |
| 4183333393 | microcosm | a small "world" that stands for the larger one: In Lord of the Flies, the island is representative of the world's political realm. | 80 | |
| 4183333394 | mixed metaphor | a metaphor whose elements are either incongruent or contradictory by the use of incompatible identifications. Ex: "the dog pulled in its horns" or "to take arms against a sea of troubles." | 81 | |
| 4183333395 | monologue | a written or oral composition presenting the discourse of one speaker only | 82 | |
| 4183333396 | motif (leitmotiv) | a recurring concept or story element in literature. It includes concepts such as types of incident or situation, as in the parting of lovers at dawn; plot devices; patterns of imagery; or archetypes and character types, such as the despairing lover, conquering hero, or wicked stepmother | 83 | |
| 4183333397 | narrator | speaker or persona, the one who tells a story. | 84 | |
| 4183333398 | Reliable narrator | everything this narrator says is true, and the narrator knows everything that is necessary to the story. | 85 | |
| 4183333399 | Unreliable narrator | may not know all the relevant information; may be intoxicated or mentally ill; may lie to the audience | 86 | |
| 4183333401 | nemesis | the inescapable agent of someone's or something's downfall; a long-standing rival; an archenemy. | 87 | |
| 4183333402 | non-sequitur | Latin for "It doesn't follow" Ex: "Our nation will prevail if we eat more eggs | 88 | |
| 4183333403 | ode | a long, formal lyric poem with a serious theme; a form of lyric poetry using elaborate, sophisticated vocabulary in iambic pentameter. It usually focuses upon a single object or person. Ex: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" - the poet is talking to a piece of pottery in a museum (apostrophe) | 89 | |
| 4183333404 | onomatopoeia | the use of a word to represent or to imitate natural sounds. Ex: sizzle, buzz, pop, hiss | 90 | |
| 4183333405 | oxymoron | technique used to produce an effect by a seeming self-contradiction. Ex: cruel kindness, make haste slowly | 91 | |
| 4183333406 | parable | a short story to prove a point with a moral basis | 92 | |
| 4183333407 | paradox | a statement which contains seemingly contradictory elements or appears contrary to common sense, yet can be seen as perhaps true when viewed from another angle. A statement that is seemingly impossible at first, but very logical once it is explained. Ex. The child is father to the man) | 93 | |
| 4183333408 | parallel structure | a repetition of sentences using the same structure | 94 | |
| 4183333409 | parallelism | the repetition of syntactical similarities in passages closely connected for rhetorical effect. The repetitive structure lends wit or emphasis to the meanings of the separate clauses, thus being particularly effective in antithesis | 95 | |
| 4183333410 | paraphrase | a restatement of an idea in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form | 96 | |
| 4183333411 | parody | ludicrous imitation, usually for comic effect but sometimes for ridicule, of the style and content of another work. The humor depends upon the reader's familiarity with the original. A literary work that imitates the style of another literary work. A parody can be simply amusing or it can be mocking in tone, such as a poem which exaggerates the use of alliteration in order to show the ridiculous effect of overuse | 97 | |
| 4183333412 | pastoral | a literary work that has to do with shepherds and rustic settings. | 98 | |
| 4183333413 | persona | the mask worn by an actor in Greek drama. In a literary context, the persona is the character of the first-person narrator in verse or prose narratives, and the speaker in lyric poetry. The use of the term "persona" (as distinct from "author") stresses that the speaker is part of the fictional creation, invented for the author's particular purposes in a given literary work | 99 | |
| 4183333414 | personification | figure of speech in which inanimate objects are given qualities of speech and/or movement. | 100 | |
| 4183333415 | point of view | the narrator or speaker perspective from which story is told—personal, objective, omniscient, partial or limited omniscient. Point of view is the perspective from which a narrative is presented; it is analogous to the point from which the camera sees the action in cinema. The two main points of view are those of the third-person (omniscient) narrator, who stands outside the story itself, and the first-person narrator, who participates in the story. The first type always uses third-person pronouns ("he," "she," "they"), while the latter narrator also uses the first-person ("I") | 101 | |
| 4183333416 | prose | all form of written expression not having a regular rhythmical pattern | 102 | |
| 4183333417 | protagonist | the main character in a story; more than one character may be important enough to be called "main," or NO character seems to qualify. In those cases, figuring out whether there is a main character and who it is may be an interesting and even difficult interpretive job. | 103 | |
| 4183333418 | refrain | a phrase or line, usually pertinent to the central topic, which is repeated at regular intervals throughout a poem, usually at the end of a stanza | 104 | |
| 4183333419 | resolution | the part of a story or drama which occurs after the climax and which establishes a new norm, a new state of affairs - the way things are going to be from then on | 105 | |
| 4183333420 | rhyme | similarity or likeness of sound; may be internal (within a segment of writing) or at the ends of lines of verse in poetry | 106 | |
| 4183333421 | double rhyme | A rhyme in which the repeated vowel is in the second last syllable of the words involved (politely-rightly-sprightly); one form of feminine rhyme | 107 | |
| 4183333422 | end rhyme | Rhymes are end-rhymed when both rhyming words are at the end of the lines | 108 | |
| 4183333423 | feminine rhyme | Rhymes are feminine when the sounds involve more than one syllable (turtle-fertile, spitefully-delightfully). A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or third last syllable of the words involved (ceiling-appealing or hurrying-scurrying) | 109 | |
| 4183333424 | identical rhyme | If the preceding consonant sound is the same (for example, manse-romance, style-stile), or if there is no preceding consonant sound in either word (for example, aisle-isle, alter-altar), or if the same word is repeated in the rhyming position (for example, hill-hill) | 110 | |
| 4183333425 | internal rhyme | An internal rhyme occurs when one or both rhyming words are within the line | 111 | |
| 4183333426 | masculine (or single) rhyme | Rhymes are masculine when the sounds involve only one syllable (decks-sex or support-retort). A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved (dance-pants, scald-recalled) | 112 | |
| 4183333427 | triple rhyme | A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the third last syllable of the words involved (gainfully-disdainfully) | 113 | |
| 4183333428 | rhythm | the metrical or rhythmical pattern in a poem | 114 | |
| 4183333429 | rising action | the development of conflict leading to a crisis; the second section of the typical plot, in which the main character begins to grapple with the story's main conflict; the rising action contains several events which usually are arranged in an order of increasing importance | 115 | |
| 4183333430 | round character | a fully developed character; character who is complex, multi-dimensional, and convincing. | 116 | |
| 4183333431 | satire | a piece of literature designed to ridicule the subject of the work. While satire can be funny, its aim is not to amuse, but to arouse contempt. Satire arouses laughter or scorn as a means of ridicule and derision, with the avowed intention of correcting human faults | 117 | |
| 4183333432 | simile | a figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison. Ex: "clear as frost on the grasslbade | 118 | |
| 4183333433 | soliloquy | a long speech made by a character who is alone on the stage in which he reveals his innermost thoughts & feelings | 119 | |
| 4183333434 | sonnet | a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes | 120 | |
| 4183333435 | The English, or Shakespearean sonnet | divided into three quatrains (four line groupings) and a final couplet (14 lines). The rhyme scheme is. The meter is iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme-- abab cdcd efef gg. The change of rhyme in the English sonnet is coincidental with a change of theme in the poem. The structure of the English sonnet explores variations on a theme in the first three quatrains and concludes with an epigrammatic couplet. | 121 | |
| 4183333436 | A Spenserian sonnet | a nine line stanza, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter | 122 | |
| 4183333437 | stanza | a related group of lines in a poem, equivalent to a paragraph in prose | 123 | |
| 4183333438 | static character | a character who is the same sort of person at the end of a story as s/he was at the beginning | 124 | |
| 4183333439 | stereotype | a characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that one aspect (such as gender, age, ethnicity, religion, race) determines what humans are like and so is accompanied by certain traits, actions, and even value | 125 | |
| 4183333440 | stock character | stereotyped character: one whose nature is familiar from prototypes in previous fiction | 126 | |
| 4183333441 | stream of consciousness | narrative technique which presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a character's mind | 127 | |
| 4183333442 | stress | saying certain syllables or words in a line with more emphasis or volume | 128 | |
| 4183333443 | structure | the planned framework for a piece of literature | 129 | |
| 4183333444 | style | a writer's typical way of expressing him- or herself | 130 | |
| 4183333445 | symbol | anything that stands for or represents anything else. | 131 | |
| 4183333446 | symbolism | using an image to represent an idea. Ex. Storms often symbolize impending disaster, red rose=love, dove=peace, black cat=bad luck | 132 | |
| 4183333447 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole or the whole for a part, as wheels for automobile or society for high society (see metonymy) | 133 | |
| 4183333448 | synesthesia | the perception or description of one kind of sense impression in words normally used to describe a different sense, like a "sweet voice" or a "velvety smile." It can be very effective for creating vivid imagery. One sensory experience described in terms of another sensory experience. | 134 | |
| 4183333449 | syntax | the arrangement of words in a sentence, the grammar of a sentence | 135 | |
| 4183333450 | theme | an ingredient of a literary work which gives the work unity. The theme provides an answer to the question, "What is the work about?" Each literary work carries its own theme(s). Unlike plot, which deals with the action of a work, theme concerns itself with a work's message or contains the general idea of a work and is worded in a complete sentence. | 136 | |
| 4183333451 | tone | expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety; the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena | 137 | |
| 4183333452 | tragic hero | a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. | 138 | |
| 4183333453 | trope | another name for figurative language | 139 | |
| 4183333454 | understatement | statement in which the literal sense of what is said falls short of the magnitude of what is being talked about (a litote is a type of understatement. Where we deliberately say less than we mean, and let the audience understand the real meaning | 140 | |
| 4183333455 | voice | the "speaker" in a piece of literature | 141 |
