Terms : Hide Images
| 3714529586 | adage | A saying or proverb containing a truth based on experience and often couched in metaphorical language. | 0 | |
| 3714529587 | allegory | A story in which the narrative or characters carry an underlying symbolic, metaphorical, or possibly ethical meaning. | 1 | |
| 3714529588 | alliteration | The repetition of one or more initial consonant sounds in a group of words, used for ornament or emphasis. | 2 | |
| 3714530607 | allusion | A reference to a person, place, or event meant to create an effect or enhance the meaning of an idea. | 3 | |
| 3714530608 | ambiguity | A vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretations. | 4 | |
| 3714530609 | anachronism | A person, scene, event, or detail in literature that fails to correspond with the time or era in which the work is set. | 5 | |
| 3714531606 | anagnorisis | A term used by Aristotle in the "Poetics" to describe the tragic hero's moment of recognition; the moment when the hero realizes a significant insight about himself or his situation. | 6 | |
| 3714531607 | anaphora | The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive lines, sentences, clauses, or paragraphs. | 7 | |
| 3714531608 | antagonist | A character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist, produces conflict. | 8 | |
| 3714532804 | antistrophe | In a classic Greek drama, the strophe and the ____________ were alternative stanzas sung aloud by the Chorus. | 9 | |
| 3714532805 | aphorism | A short, pithy statement of a generally accepted truth or sentiment. | 10 | |
| 3714533632 | apostrophe | A form of address in which a speaker addresses a person or personified thing that is not present. | 11 | |
| 3714533633 | archetype | An abstract or ideal conception of a type; a perfectly typical example. | 12 | |
| 3714533634 | assonance | The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in a group of word or lines. | 13 | |
| 3714534448 | ballad | A simple narrative, relating a story, that is either sung or recited. | 14 | |
| 3714535396 | bathos | The use of insincere or overdone sentimentality. | 15 | |
| 3714535397 | bildungsroman | A German word referring to a novel structured as a series of events that take place as the hero travels in quest of a goal. | 16 | |
| 3714535398 | blank verse | Poetry with formal meter (such as iambic pentameter), but no formal rhyme. | 17 | |
| 3714537830 | burlesque | A work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque imitation. | 18 | |
| 3714537831 | cacophony | Grating, inharmonious sounds. | 19 | |
| 3714541539 | caesura | A pause somewhere in the middle of a verse, often (but not always) marked by punctuation. | 20 | |
| 3714541540 | canon | The works considered most "important" in a national literature or literary period. | 21 | |
| 3714541541 | catharsis | A cleansing of the spirit brought about by the pity and terror of a dramatic tragedy. | 22 | |
| 3714541542 | classical | Deriving from the orderly qualities of Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. | 23 | |
| 3714542464 | coming-of-age | A tale in which a young protagonist experiences an introduction to adulthood; the character may develop understanding via disillusionment, education, doses of reality, or any other experiences that alter his or her emotional or intellectual maturity. | 24 | |
| 3714542465 | conceit | An elaborate or extended metaphor that governs a literary passage, poem, or text. | 25 | |
| 3714542466 | connotation | The suggested or implied meanings of a word or phrase. | 26 | |
| 3714543596 | consonance | The repetition of two or more consonant sounds in a group of words. | 27 | |
| 3714543597 | couplet | A pair of rhyming lines in a poem. | 28 | |
| 3714543598 | denotation | The literal (or dictionary) meaning of a word or phrase. | 29 | |
| 3714544763 | denouement | The resolution that occurs at the end of a play or work of fiction. | 30 | |
| 3714544764 | dues ex machina | A Latin term that literally means "god from the machine;" in literature, it refers to the use of an artificial device or obvious gimmick that a writer uses to solve a problem. | 31 | |
| 3714546145 | dialect | A regional speech pattern, used by a writer to make dialogue more personal and authentic. | 32 | |
| 3714546146 | diction | A writer's choice of words. | 33 | |
| 3714546147 | dramatic irony | A circumstance in which the audience/reader knows more about a situation that the character(s) know. | 34 | |
| 3714546916 | elegy | A verse or prose selection that laments on the loss or death of something or someone of value. | 35 | |
| 3714546917 | end-stopped | A line of poetry that ends with a natural pause, often indicated by a punctuation mark. | 36 | |
| 3714547922 | enjambment | Successive lines of poetry with no punctuation or pause between them. | 37 | |
| 3714547923 | epic | An extended narrative poem that describes the adventures and exploits of a hero who embodies his culture. | 38 | |
| 3714547924 | epigram | A concise bu ingenious and witty statement. | 39 | |
| 3714547925 | episodia | A scene in ancient Greek drama involving the actors' dialogue and action rather than the Chorus. | 40 | |
| 3714547926 | epistrophe | The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive lines, sentences, phrases, or clauses. | 41 | |
| 3714549029 | epithalamion | A wedding hymn sung in classical Greek outside the bride's room on her wedding nigh. Renaissance poets revived the tradition. | 42 | |
| 3714549030 | epithet | An adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality of a person or a thing. | 43 | |
| 3714549031 | eponymous | A term for the title character of a work of literature. | 44 | |
| 3714549811 | euphemism | An inoffensive or more socially acceptable word for something that could be vulgar or offensive to others. | 45 | |
| 3714549812 | exegesis | A detailed analysis or interpretation of a work of literature. | 46 | |
| 3714549813 | exposition | The background and events that lead to the presentation of the main idea of a work of literature. | 47 | |
| 3714550616 | explication | The interpretation or analysis of a work of literature. | 48 | |
| 3714550617 | fable | A short tale often featuring nonhuman characters whose actions enable the author to make insightful observations about human behavior. | 49 | |
| 3714551467 | falling action | The action in a play or story that occurs after the climax, leading to the conclusion and the resolution of the conflict. | 50 | |
| 3714551468 | fantasy | A story containing unreal, imaginary features. | 51 | |
| 3714551469 | farce | A comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness. | 52 | |
| 3714552226 | first-person narrative | A narrative told by a character in the story, identifiable by the presence of the first-person pronouns, such as I and we. | 53 | |
| 3714552227 | flashback | A switch to an earlier time in a story or play in order to clarify present actions or circumstances. | 54 | |
| 3714552228 | foil | A minor character whose personality or attitude contrasts with that of a main character; juxtaposing one character against another can serve to intensify the qualities of both. | 55 | |
| 3714553134 | foreshadowing | Providing hints of things to come in a story or play. | 56 | |
| 3714554230 | frame | A narrative structure that provides the premise or setting for a story. | 57 | |
| 3714554231 | free verse | Poetry without rhyme, rhythm, or meter. | 58 | |
| 3714554232 | genre | A term used to describe a literary form, suck as a novel, play, or essay. | 59 | |
| 3714554860 | hamartia | Literally meaning "the act of missing the mark," _________ is a term used by Aristotle in the "Poetics" to refer to a tragic flaw that causes catastrophic results for the tragic hero. | 60 | |
| 3714554861 | hubris | The excessive pride that can lead to a tragic hero's fall from greatness. | 61 | |
| 3714554862 | hyperbole | Overstatement; gross exaggeration for a specific effect. | 62 | |
| 3714554863 | in media res | Latin term for a narrative that starts in the midst of an action. | 63 | |
| 3714556142 | irony | Cicero referred to _________ as "saying one thing and meaning another;" _________ can also be understood as an essential discrepancy or incongruity between the expectation and the reality. _________ is often classified as verbal _________, dramatic _________, or situational _________. | 64 | |
| 3714556143 | jargon | A set of vocabulary associated with a specific group of people or a particular profession. | 65 | |
| 3714556144 | juxtaposition | The setting of one idea next to another in order to emphasize the differences. | 66 | |
| 3714558304 | kenning | A device employed in Anglo-Saxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by one of its functions or qualities. | 67 | |
| 3714558305 | lampoon | A mocking, satirical assault on a person or situation. | 68 | |
| 3714558306 | litotes | A form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or irony. | 69 | |
| 3714558307 | lyric poetry | Personal reflective poetry that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about a subject. | 70 | |
| 3714558308 | maxim | A saying or proverb that expresses common wisdom or truth. | 71 | |
| 3714559587 | metaphysical poetry | The work of poets, especially those of the 17th century, that use elaborate conceits and intellectualism to express the complexities of love and life. | 72 | |
| 3714559588 | meter | The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. | 73 | |
| 3714559589 | metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to represent something else with which it is associated. | 74 | |
| 3714559590 | middle english | The language used in England from approximately 1150 to 1500 A.D. | 75 | |
| 3714560470 | mock epic | A parody of the traditional epic form; it usually treats a frivolous topic with extreme seriousness, using conventions such as invocations to the Muse, action-packed battle scenes, and accounts of heroic exploits. | 76 | |
| 3714560471 | mood | The emotional tone in a work of literature. | 77 | |
| 3714560472 | motif | A phrase, idea, or event that, through repetition, serves to unify or convey a theme in a work of literature. | 78 | |
| 3714560473 | muse | Derived from the Ancient Greek goddesses who presided over the arts, a muse is any source of inspiration for an artist or a writer. | 79 | |
| 3714561612 | myth | An imaginary story that has become an accepted part of the cultural or religious tradition of a group or society; often used to explain natural phenomena. | 80 | |
| 3714561613 | narrative | A form of verse or prose that tells a story. | 81 | |
| 3714561614 | naturalism | Often used as a synonym for realism; a view of experience that is generally characterized as bleak or pessimistic. | 82 | |
| 3714563840 | non sequitur | Latin expression meaning a statement or idea that does not follow logically from the one before. | 83 | |
| 3714563841 | novella | A work of fiction that is longer than a short story but shorter than a full-length novel. | 84 | |
| 3714563842 | novel of manners | A novel focusing on and describing the social customs and habits of a particular social group. | 85 | |
| 3714563843 | ode | A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 86 | |
| 3714564762 | old english | The Anglo-Saxon language spoken in what is now known as England from approximately 450 to 1150 A.D. | 87 | |
| 3714564763 | omniscient narrator | A narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characters, setting, background, and all other elements of a story. | 88 | |
| 3714566266 | onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sounds suggest their meanings. Example: BANG! | 89 | |
| 3714568306 | oxymoron | A term consisting of contradictory elements juxtaposed to create a paradoxical effect. | 90 | |
| 3714568307 | parable | A story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived. | 91 | |
| 3714568308 | parados | Traditionally the first ode sung by the Chorus in a classical Greek drama. It usually follows the prologue. | 92 | |
| 3714568309 | paradox | A statement that seems to contradict itself, yet contains an element of truth or insight. | 93 | |
| 3714568310 | parody | An imitation of a work of art or literature meant to ridicule its style and subject. | 94 | |
| 3714569191 | pastoral | A work of literature dealing with rural life. | 95 | |
| 3714569192 | pathetic fallacy | Faulty reasoning that inappropriately links natural phenomena (such as weather) to human feelings or moods. | 96 | |
| 3714569193 | pathos | That element in literature that stimulates pity or sorrow. | 97 | |
| 3714569194 | pentameter | A verse with five poetic feet per line. | 98 | |
| 3714570091 | peripeteia | A term used by Aristotle in the "Poetics," the ___________ is a hero's sudden reversal of fortune. | 99 | |
| 3714570745 | persona | The role or facade that a character assumes or depicts to a reader, a viewer, or the word at large. | 100 | |
| 3714570746 | personification | A figure of speech in which objects and animals are given human characteristics. | 101 | |
| 3714570747 | plot | The events that make up the narrative line of a poem, story, or pay, especially as they relate to one another to drive the action of the narrative toward a resolution. | 102 | |
| 3714571695 | picaresque novel | An episodic novel about a rogue-like wanderer who live off of his wits. | 103 | |
| 3714571696 | point of view | A method of narration that determines the position from which a story unfolds. Narration typically is classified as first person, limited, third person, or omniscient third person. Additionally, an unreliable narrator is one who misinterprets of obfuscates events in the story either intentionally or unintentionally. | 104 | |
| 3714571697 | protagonist | The main character in a literary work; the character engaged in the central conflict of a literary work. | 105 | |
| 3714572410 | psuedonym | Also called a "pen name" or "nom de plume," a ____________ is a false name or an alias used by a writer. | 106 | |
| 3714572411 | pun | A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings. | 107 | |
| 3714572412 | quatrain | A four-line poem, or a four-line unit of a longer poem. | 108 | |
| 3714572413 | realsim | The depiction of people, things, and events as they really are, without idealization or exaggeration for effect. | 109 | |
| 3714573427 | rhetoric | The language of a work and its style; words, often highly emotional, used to convince or sway an audience. | 110 | |
| 3714573428 | rhyme scheme | A pattern of rhymes within a given poem. | 111 | |
| 3714573429 | rhythm | The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of poetry. | 112 | |
| 3714574456 | roman a clef | Literally "novel with a key," a French term for a narrative that represents actual historical characters and events in the form of fiction. | 113 | |
| 3714574457 | medieval romance | Literary works that deal with chivalry and the adventures of knights in warfare as they seek to earn a woman's favor by undertaking a dangerous quest; involve highly developed manners and civility. | 114 | |
| 3714994896 | renaissance romance | Literary works that involve episodic encounters with supernatural or exciting events. | 115 | |
| 3714575200 | sarcasm | A sharp, caustic expression or remark; different from irony, which tends to be more subtle. | 116 | |
| 3714575201 | satire | A literary form used to mock or ridicule an idea, person, or society, often for the purpose of inducing change. | 117 | |
| 3714575202 | setting | The environment of a literary work that includes both time and place. | 118 | |
| 3714575203 | shift | The _________, or turn in a poem marks a change in tone or attitude, usually signaling a change in the speaker's understanding or view. | 119 | |
| 3714575204 | sonnet | A form of verse consisting of 14 lines and a prescribed rhyme scheme (can be categorized as either Shakespearean/Elizabethan or Italian/Petrarchan). | 120 | |
| 3714576119 | stanza | A group of two or more lines in poetry. | 121 | |
| 3714576120 | stasimon | An ode sung by the Chorus in a classic Greek drama; the stasima serve as dividing segments that separate episodia of dialogue spoken by the actors. | 122 | |
| 3714576762 | stream of consciousness | A style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the seemingly random flow of thoughts in the human mind. | 123 | |
| 3714576763 | strophe | In a classic Greek drama, the _________ and the antistrophe were alternative stanzas sung aloud by the Chorus, beginning with the __________. | 124 | |
| 3714576764 | subject | A topic or idea under consideration in a literary text. | 125 | |
| 3714576765 | subplot | A subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or play, usually connected to the main plot. | 126 | |
| 3714577560 | symbolism | The use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object. | 127 | |
| 3714577561 | synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole. | 128 | |
| 3714578407 | syntax | The organization of language into meaningful structure; every sentence has a particular __________ or pattern of words. | 129 | |
| 3714578408 | theme | A central idea that unifies and controls a literary work; _________ is generally expressed as a complete sentence rather than a single word. | 130 | |
| 3714578409 | title character | The character whose name appears in the title of the work of literature. | 131 | |
| 3714580099 | tone | The author's attitude toward the subject or the audience; the characteristic emotion that pervades a work or a part of a work. | 132 | |
| 3714580100 | tragedy | A form of literature in which the hero is brought down by a character flaw and a set of forces that cause the hero considerable anguish. | 133 | |
| 3714580101 | trope | The generic name for a figure of speech such as image, symbol, simile, and metaphor. | 134 | |
| 3714580866 | verbal irony | A discrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words. | 135 | |
| 3714580867 | verse | Poetry, or a group of lines in a song or poem. | 136 | |
| 3714580868 | verisimilitude | The quality of realism in a work that persuades readers they are getting a vision of life as it is. | 137 | |
| 3714581726 | villanelle | A French form of verse characterized by 19 lines and a formal rhyme pattern. | 138 | |
| 3714581727 | voice | The real or assumed personality used by a writer or speaker. | 139 |
