Terms : Hide Images
| 4063881715 | Anti-hero | the character upon whom the resolution of the story depends and who demonstrates negative qualities one would not like to emulate | 0 | |
| 4063881716 | Anagnorisis | Recognition of truth about one's self and his actions; moment of clarity | 1 | |
| 4063881717 | Ad deus absconditus | Omniscient presence | 2 | |
| 4063881718 | False Analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them. | 3 | |
| 4063881719 | Catharsis | an emotional purification, an emotional release | 4 | |
| 4063881720 | Antimetabole | Repetition of words in reverse order | 5 | |
| 4063881721 | Chiasmus | A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed | 6 | |
| 4063881722 | Analogy | A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way | 7 | |
| 4063881723 | Cliche | A worn-out idea or overused expression | 8 | |
| 4063881724 | Deductive reasoning | reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.) | 9 | |
| 4063881725 | Inductive reasoning | Collecting data to draw a conclusion that may or may not be true. | 10 | |
| 4063881726 | Dialogue | Conversation between two or more characters | 11 | |
| 4063881727 | Diction | A writer's or speaker's choice of words | 12 | |
| 4063881728 | Didactic | Intended to teach | 13 | |
| 4063881729 | Appeals to reason | The author uses logical arguments backed by facts | 14 | |
| 4063881730 | ethos | Appeal to credibility | 15 | |
| 4063881731 | logos | Appeal to logic | 16 | |
| 4063881732 | pathos | Appeal to emotion | 17 | |
| 4063881733 | Figure of Speech | a word or phrase used in a nonliteral sense to add rhetorical force to a spoken or written passage | 18 | |
| 4063881734 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid | 19 | |
| 4063881735 | asyndeton | the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence. | 20 | |
| 4063881736 | Overstatement | Exaggeration | 21 | |
| 4063881737 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction | 22 | |
| 4063881738 | Parable | A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson | 23 | |
| 4063881739 | Paradox | A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. | 24 | |
| 4063881740 | Anthropomorphism | the attribution of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects | 25 | |
| 4063881741 | Plot Sequence | exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution the order in which the events in the story are told | 26 | |
| 4063881742 | Satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. It doesn't simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). It targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals. | 27 | |
| 4063881743 | Epitaph | A brief statement written on a tomb or gravestone | 28 | |
| 4063881744 | Ambiguity | An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. | 29 | |
| 4063881745 | Aphorism | A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life. | 30 | |
| 4063881746 | Colloquialism | informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing | 31 | |
| 4063881747 | Euphemism | A polite or vague word or phrase used to replace another word or phrase that is thought of as too direct or rude. | 32 | |
| 4063881748 | 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." | 33 | |
| 4063881749 | Anecdote | A short account of an interesting or humorous incident | 34 | |
| 4063881750 | Antithesis | a figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other, such as "hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins" | 35 | |
| 4063881751 | Explication | The act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. | 36 | |
| 4063881752 | Epithet | an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned. | 37 | |
| 4063881753 | Dilemma | a difficult or perplexing situation or problem | 38 | |
| 4063881754 | Jargon | (n) vocabulary specific to a group or occupation; convoluted or unintelligible language | 39 | |
| 4063881755 | Motif | A recurring theme, subject or idea | 40 | |
| 4063881756 | Stream of Consciousness | a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind | 41 | |
| 4063881757 | Enigma | A mystery | 42 | |
| 4063881758 | Concrete detail | A highly specific, particular, often real, actual, or tangible detail; the opposite of abstract. | 43 | |
| 4063881759 | Descriptive detail | Graphic, exact, and accurate presentation of the characteristics of a person, place, or thing. Sensory details. | 44 | |
| 4063881760 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. A preceding event; a forerunner; a precursor | 45 | |
| 4063881761 | Denouement | conclusion; resolution; the falling action of a story after its climax | 46 | |
| 4063881762 | Realism | A 19th century artistic movement in which writers and painters sought to show life as it is rather than life as it should be | 47 | |
| 4063881763 | 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 | 48 | |
| 4063881764 | Metonymy | (mĕtŏn′ ĭmē) A term from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name," metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. For example, a news release that claims "the White House declared" rather than "the President declared" is using metonymy; Shakespeare uses it to signify the male and female sexes in As You Like It: "doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat." The substituted term generally carries a more potent emotional impact. | 49 | |
| 4063881765 | Pseudonym | (n.) a pen name, name assumed by a writer | 50 | |
| 4063881766 | Utopian novel | a novel that presents an ideal society where the problems of poverty, greed, crime, and so forth have been eliminated | 51 | |
| 4063881767 | Faulty logic | Errors in reasoning | 52 | |
| 4063881768 | Common knowledge | Can be used in the same manner as your own personal knowledge and experiences; there is no need to acknowledge the source | 53 | |
| 4063881769 | Synthesize | combine parts or pieces into a whole | 54 | |
| 4063881770 | Analyze | Break down in order to bring out the essential elements or structure | 55 | |
| 4063881771 | Double entendre | A statement that is deliberately ambiguous, one of whose possible meanings is risqué or suggestive of some impropriety. | 56 | |
| 4063881772 | Allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 57 | |
| 4063881773 | Overgeneralization | distortion of thinking in which a person draws sweeping conclusions based on only one incident or event and applies those conclusions to events that are unrelated to the original | 58 | |
| 4063881774 | Theme | Central idea of a work of literature | 59 | |
| 4063881775 | Tone | A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels. | 60 | |
| 4063881776 | Anaphora | A sub-type of parallelism, when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences. MLK used anaphora in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech (1963). | 61 | |
| 4063881777 | Alliteration | Repetition of consonant sounds | 62 | |
| 4063881778 | Assonance | Repetition of similar vowel sounds | 63 | |
| 4063881779 | Slang | A type of language that consists of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people | 64 | |
| 4063881780 | Style (a writer's) | The consideration of style has two purposes: (1) An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other We can analyze and describe an author's personal style and make judgments on how appropriate it is to the author's purpose. Styles can be called flowery, explicit, succinct, rambling, bombastic, commonplace, incisive, laconic, etc. (2) Classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors. By means of such classification and comparison, we can see how an author's style reflects and helps to define a historical period, such as the Renaissance or the Victorian period, or a literary movement, such as the romantic, transcendental, or realist movement. | 65 | |
| 4063881781 | Conundrum | A difficult problem | 66 | |
| 4063881782 | Circumlocution | an indirect or wordy way of expressing an idea | 67 | |
| 4063881783 | Syntax | Sentence structure | 68 | |
| 4063881784 | Understatement | A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker says less than what he or she means; the opposite of exaggeration. | 69 | |
| 4063881785 | Voice (in writing) | the personality and distinct way of " talking on paper" that allows the writer to "hear" a human personality in a piece of writing. | 70 | |
| 4063881786 | Active voice | The opposite of passive voice, the active is essentially any sentence with an active verb. Johnny Appleseed planted his seeds in the garden. The active verb is "planted." Active voice is usually preferred in writing because it expresses more energy and command of the essay than does the passive voice. Expresses an action done by its subject. | 71 | |
| 4063881787 | Passive voice | The subject of the sentence receives the action. Th opposite of active voice; in the passive voice something happens to someone: Mordred was bitten by the dog, rather than the active form The dig bit Mordred. | 72 | |
| 4063881788 | Attention getter | the first element of an introduction, designed mainly to create interest in a speech-- can be a suprising fact, emotional story, a joke, or a quote | 73 | |
| 4063881789 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. | 74 | |
| 4063881790 | Introductory clause | Dependent clauses which are found at the beginning of the sentence. Usually begin with a conjunction or an adverb. | 75 | |
| 4063881791 | Independent clause | expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. Has both a subject and a verb. | 76 | |
| 4063881792 | 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 | 77 | |
| 4063881793 | Simple Sentence | A sentence consisting of one independent clause and no dependent clause | 78 | |
| 4063881794 | Compound Sentence | A sentence with two or more coordinate independent clauses, often joined by one or more conjunctions. | 79 | |
| 4063881795 | Complex Sentence | A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause | 80 | |
| 4063881796 | Compound/ complex sentence | at least one dependent clause and two or more independent clauses | 81 | |
| 4063881797 | Ellipsis | Three periods (...)indicating the omission of words in a thought or quotation. | 82 | |
| 4063881798 | Fragment | A word, phrase, or clause that does not form a full sentence | 83 | |
| 4063881799 | Parentheses | a word, clause, or sentence inserted as an explanation or afterthought into a passage that is grammatically complete without it, in writing usually marked off by curved brackets, dashes, or commas. | 84 | |
| 4063881800 | Gerund phrase | Verb phrase that acts as a noun ex. Walking to the store makes me tired. | 85 | |
| 4063881801 | Participle phrase | is a present or past participle and its modifiers. The entire phrase acts as an adjective in a sentence. | 86 | |
| 4063881802 | Appositive phrase | A group of words that stands next to a noun or pronoun and renames or adds information or details to it. | 87 | |
| 4063881803 | Infinitive phrase | Phrases that begin with an infinitive. (to + simple form of the verb) | 88 | |
| 4063881804 | Prepositional phrase | A group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. In the morning, I eat breakfast. | 89 | |
| 4063881805 | Run on Sentence | Two or more complete sentences written together without the correct punctuation or connecting words. For example, Adam is a sweet boy he really loves animals | 90 | |
| 4063881806 | Semi colon | serve to separate words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. Usually serves the same purpose as a comma and conjunction. Should be used to join 2 related independent clauses where one does not serve to explain the other. should also be used to separate items in a list when the items are longer than a couple of words | 91 | |
| 4063881807 | Colon | the sign (:) used to mark a major division in a sentence, to indicate that what follows is an elaboration, summation, implication, etc., of what precedes; or to separate groups of numbers referring to different things, as hours from minutes in 5:30; or the members of a ratio or proportion, as in 1 : 2 = 3 : 6. | 92 | |
| 4063881808 | Transition | A word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph | 93 | |
| 4063881809 | Thesis statement | a statement or sentence that states the purpose of a paper or essay | 94 | |
| 4063881810 | Topic Sentence | A sentence, most often appearing at the beginning of a paragraph, that announces the paragraph's idea and often unites it with the work's thesis. | 95 | |
| 4063881811 | Rhetorical question | A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer | 96 | |
| 4063881812 | Juxtapose | to place close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. | 97 | |
| 4063881813 | Cacophony | A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds | 98 | |
| 4063881814 | Diatribe | an abusive, condemnatory speech | 99 | |
| 4063881815 | Epistrophe | A scheme in which the same word is repeated at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. Example: "I believe we should fight for justice. You believe we should fight for justice. How can we not, then, fight for justice?" | 100 | |
| 4063881816 | redundant | Needlessly repetitive | 101 | |
| 4063881817 | anachronism | Something out of place in time | 102 | |
| 4063881818 | characterization (direct and indirect) | the process by which the personality of a fictitious character is revealed by the use of descriptive adjectives, phrases, or epithets. | 103 | |
| 4063881819 | travesty | (n.) a grossly inferior imitation (According to the school newspaper's merciless theater critic, Pacific Coast High's rendition of the musical Oklahoma was a travesty of the original.) | 104 | |
| 4063881820 | parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. | 105 | |
| 4063881821 | farce | (n.) a play filled with ridiculous or absurd happenings; broad or far-fetched humor; a ridiculous sham | 106 | |
| 4063881822 | knaves and fools | in comedy there are no villains and no innocent victims. Instead, there are rogues (knaves) and suckers (fools). The knave exploits someone "asking for it". When these two interact, comic satire results. When knaves and fools meet, they expose each other. | 107 | |
| 4063881823 | malapropism | a word humorously misused | 108 | |
| 4063881824 | literary merit | That quality of a story gives readers and actors a deeper understanding about the human condition and human spirit just through experiencing the story. | 109 | |
| 4063881825 | hubris | Excessive pride or self-confidence | 110 | |
| 4063881826 | dystopian novel | An anti-utopian novel where, instead of a paradise, everything has gone wrong in the attempt to create a perfect society | 111 | |
| 4063881827 | epic | A long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society | 112 | |
| 4063881828 | epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight | 113 | |
| 4063881829 | acronym | a word made up of the initials of other words | 114 | |
| 4063881830 | literary lens | a focus used to examine and interpret a piece of writing | 115 | |
| 4063881831 | flashback | A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time | 116 | |
| 4063881832 | mood | Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader | 117 | |
| 4063881833 | novel | a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes. | 118 | |
| 4063881834 | novella | a fiction work that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel | 119 | |
| 4063881835 | persona | An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. | 120 | |
| 4063881836 | polysyndeton | Deliberate use of many conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted. Hemingway and the Bible both use extensively. Ex. "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy" | 121 | |
| 4063881837 | euphony | pleasant, harmonious sound | 122 | |
| 4063881838 | apostrophe | A prayer-like figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. William Wordsworth addresses John Milton as he writes, "Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee." Another example is Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn," in which Keats addresses the urn itself: rarely on an AP exam, but important when there. ALWAYS Pathos | 123 | |
| 4063881839 | annotation | (n.) a critical or explanatory note or comment, especially for a literary work | 124 | |
| 4063881840 | Subjective compliment (predicate adjective and nominative) | A subject complement is the adjective, noun, or pronoun that follows a linking verb. The following verbs are true linking verbs: any form of the verb be [am, is, are, was, were, has been, are being, might have been, etc.], become, and seem. These true linking verbs are always linking verbs. | 125 | |
| 4063881841 | Parts of Speech | adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, verbs | 126 | |
| 4063881842 | Parts of the Sentence | The five main parts of a sentence are: Subject, Predicate, Clause, Phrase, Modifier | 127 | |
| 4063881843 | Subordination and coordination | when you want to coordinate use a coordinating conjunction, when you want to subordinate use a subordinating word or a participle | 128 | |
| 4063881844 | conventional | (adj.) in line with accepted ideas or standards; trite | 129 | |
| 4063881845 | Hamartia | tragic flaw which causes a character's downfall | 130 | |
| 4063881846 | Existentialism | A philosophy based on the idea that people give meaning to their lives through their choices and actions | 131 | |
| 4063881847 | Hedonism | the pursuit of pleasure as a way of life | 132 | |
| 4063881848 | Structure | The arrangement or framework of a sentence, paragraph, or entire work | 133 | |
| 4063881849 | nostalgia | longing for the past | 134 | |
| 4063881850 | Dangling Modifiers | phrases that do not relate to the subject being modified. (EX: "Weighing the options carefully, a decision was made about convicting the criminal." - who is weighing the options? Correction: "Weighing the options carefully, the judge made a decision...") | 135 | |
| 4063881851 | Misplaced Modifiers | phrases not placed near the word they modify. (EX: "One damaged house stood only to remind townspeople of the hurricane." - suggests that the sole reason the house remained was to serve as a reminder. Correction: "Only one damaged house stood, reminding townspeople of the hurricane." | 136 | |
| 4063881852 | Reductio ad absurdum | the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice | 137 | |
| 4063881853 | Echolalia | Echolalia is to repeat back something that has already been said, exactly as it is said. You might ask, "What's your name?" and the person will reply back, "What's your name?" | 138 | |
| 4063881854 | Incongruity | lack of harmony; absurdity | 139 | |
| 4063881855 | Zeugma | a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ). | 140 | |
| 4063881856 | Tragic Hero | A protagonist with a fatal flaw which eventually leads to his demise | 141 | |
| 4063881857 | Annotated Bibliography | A list of the sources used for research and a one paragraph summary of each source | 142 | |
| 4063881858 | Credible Sources | Sources that can be reasonably trusted to be accurate and objective. | 143 | |
| 4063881859 | Parenthetical documentation | citations to original sources that appear in the text of your paper. | 144 | |
| 4063881860 | MLA | Modern Language Association; Guidelines for documenting and citing sources during a research project. | 145 | |
| 4063881861 | Works Cited | a complete listing of references cited parenthetically in the report and keyed on a separate page | 146 | |
| 4063881862 | Dogma | (adj.) aggressively and arrogantly certain about unproved principles (His dogmatic claim that men were better than women at fixing appliances angered everyone.) | 147 | |
| 4063881863 | Periodic Sentence | The opposite of loose sentence, a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. This independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone. The effect of a periodic sentence is to add emphasis and structural variety. It is also a much stronger sentence than the loose sentence. (Example: After a long, bumpy flight and multiple delays, I arrived at the San Diego airport.) | 148 | |
| 4063881864 | Balanced Sentence | Grammatically balanced. Antithesis is usually involved. Ex. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. | 149 | |
| 8296441785 | Epic simile | A detailed, often complex poetic comparison that unfolds over the course of several lines. It is also known as a Homeric simile. | 150 |
