Terms : Hide Images
| 7315130344 | Allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. | 0 | |
| 7315131360 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words. | 1 | |
| 7315142414 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. | 2 | |
| 7315134550 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 3 | |
| 7315138052 | Analogy | A comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. | 4 | |
| 7315147067 | Anaphora | The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. | 5 | |
| 7315146248 | Anastrophe | The order of the noun and adjective are exchanged (switched around). | 6 | |
| 7315126072 | Anecdote | A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. | 7 | |
| 7315137128 | Antagonist | A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary. | 8 | |
| 7315129513 | Antimetabole | repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order | 9 | |
| 7315072203 | Antithesis | opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction | 10 | |
| 7315072204 | Antihero | a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes. | 11 | |
| 7315074581 | Anthropomorphism | the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. | 12 | |
| 7315074582 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. | 13 | |
| 7315076593 | Apostrophe | A firgure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or personified abstraction (such as liberty or love). | 14 | |
| 7315076594 | Apposition | a relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent | 15 | |
| 7315076595 | Assonance | The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words. | 16 | |
| 7315080092 | Asyndeton | A syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing more rapid prose; i.e., "Veni, vidi, veci." | 17 | |
| 7315085703 | Balance | Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance | 18 | |
| 7429557738 | Characterization | The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. | 19 | |
| 7429557739 | Indirect Characterization | The author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character's private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the character's effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward to the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature. | 20 | |
| 7429568016 | Direct Characterization | The author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form. | 21 | |
| 7429568017 | Static Character | Is one who does not change much in the course of a story. | 22 | |
| 7429570984 | Dynamic Character | Is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action. | 23 | |
| 7429570985 | Flat Character | Has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase. | 24 | |
| 7429574604 | Round Character | has more dimensions to their personality---they are complex, just like a real person. | 25 | |
| 7429574605 | Chiasmus | In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: "Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike." In prose this is called antimetabole. | 26 | |
| 7429576748 | Cliché | Is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. | 27 | |
| 7429578971 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. | 28 | |
| 7731064994 | Comedy | In general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters. | 29 | |
| 7731064995 | Conceit | An elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor. | 30 | |
| 7731064996 | Confessional Poetry | A twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet's life. | 31 | |
| 7731067791 | Conflict | The struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story. | 32 | |
| 7731067792 | External Conflict | Conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person and a whole society. | 33 | |
| 7731067793 | Internal Conflict | A conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person's mind. | 34 | |
| 7731071119 | Connotation | The associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition. | 35 | |
| 7731071120 | Couplet | Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry. | 36 | |
| 7731071121 | Dialect | A way of speaking that is characteristics of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area. | 37 | |
| 7731071122 | Diction | A speaker or writer's choice of words. | 38 | |
| 7906423201 | Didactic | form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking. | 39 | |
| 7906423202 | Elegy | A poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. A eulogy is great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died. | 40 | |
| 7906423203 | Epanalepsis | Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence. | 41 | |
| 7906423204 | 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. | 42 | |
| 7906425868 | Epigraph | A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme. | 43 | |
| 7906425869 | Epistrophe | Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora) | 44 | |
| 7906425870 | Epithet | An adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. "Father of our country" and "The great Emancipator" are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a person or thing. | 45 | |
| 7906425871 | Essay | A short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject. | 46 | |
| 7906429159 | Persuasion | Relies more on emotional appeals than facts. | 47 | |
| 7906429160 | Argument/Argumentation | One of the four forms of discourse which uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way. Form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way. | 48 | |
| 7906429161 | Causal Relationship | Form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument. | 49 | |
| 7906432187 | Description | A form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or emotion | 50 | |
| 7906432188 | Exposition | one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or "set forth" | 51 | |
| 7906432189 | Narrative | the form of discourse that tells about a series of events | 52 | |
| 8156252923 | Explication | Act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language. | 53 | |
| 8156320946 | Fable | A very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life. | 54 | |
| 8156328468 | Farce | A type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations. | 55 | |
| 8156340381 | Figurative Language | Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms. | 56 | |
| 8156355345 | Flashback | A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time. | 57 | |
| 8156366443 | Foil | A character who acts as contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero. | 58 | |
| 8156374667 | Foreshadowing | The use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot. | 59 | |
| 8156384478 | Free Verse | Poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme. | 60 | |
| 8156390219 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. | 61 | |
| 8156456795 | Hypotactic | Sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. | 62 | |
| 8293373972 | Imagery | The use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or an experience | 63 | |
| 8293379649 | Inversion | The reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase | 64 | |
| 8293385164 | Irony | A discrepancy between appearances and reality | 65 | |
| 8293392048 | Verbal Irony | Occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else | 66 | |
| 8293396069 | Situational Irony | Takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen | 67 | |
| 8293420366 | Dramatic Irony | Is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better | 68 | |
| 8293432043 | Juxtaposition | Poetic and rhetorical device in which normal unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit | 69 | |
| 8293450509 | Litotes | Is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form | 70 | |
| 8293460217 | Local Color | A term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect, and landscape | 71 | |
| 8293471411 | Loose Sentence | One in which the main class comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units | 72 | |
| 8561755090 | Lyric Poem | A poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. A BALLAD tells a story | 73 | |
| 8561761284 | Metaphor | A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles | 74 | |
| 8561776524 | Implied metaphor | does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison, "I like to see it lap the miles" is an implied metaphor in which the verb lab implies a comparison between "it" and some animal that "laps" up water | 75 | |
| 8561795819 | Extended metaphor | Is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it. | 76 | |
| 8561842251 | Dead metaphor | is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid "the head of the house" | 77 | |
| 8561847929 | Mixed Metaphor | is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. "The president is a lame duck who is running out of gas" | 78 | |
| 8561869333 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it. "we requested from the crown support for our petition" | 79 | |
| 8561889100 | Mood | An atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected | 80 | |
| 8561895312 | Motif | A recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying that current situation to previous ones, or new idea to the theme. | 81 | |
| 8561923285 | Motivation | The reasons for a character's behavior | 82 | |
| 8561931872 | Onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds echo their sense | 83 | |
| 8561935765 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. "Pretty Ugly" | 84 | |
| 8561942781 | Parable | A relatively short story that teaches a moral or lesson about how to lead a good life. | 85 | |
| 8561951778 | Paradox | A statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth | 86 | |
| 8561959891 | Koan | is a paradox used in Zen buddhism to gain intuitive knowledge | 87 | |
| 8895955267 | Parallel Structure | the repetition of phrases, clauses, or sentences that have the same grammatical structure | 88 | |
| 8895960121 | Paratactic Structure | simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. I am tired: it is hot. | 89 | |
| 8895961971 | Parody | A work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner | 90 | |
| 8895964202 | Periodic | Describes something that occurs or repeats at regular intervals | 91 | |
| 8895964203 | Personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 92 | |
| 8895964204 | Plot | Sequence of events in a story | 93 | |
| 8895966901 | Exposition | a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory. | 94 | |
| 8895966902 | Rising Action | the series of conflicts or struggles that build a story toward a climax. | 95 | |
| 8895966903 | Climax | Most exciting moment of the story; turning point | 96 | |
| 8895969000 | Resolution | End of the story where loose ends are tied up | 97 | |
| 8895969001 | Point of View | The perspective from which a story is told | 98 | |
| 8895970924 | First Person POV | The point of view is told by the character that uses the first person pronoun "I". | 99 | |
| 8895972814 | Third Person POV | the narrator is outside the story or there is no narrator (use of "he, she, or they") | 100 | |
| 8895975286 | Omniscient POV | narrator reports on the thoughts and feelings of all main characters | 101 | |
| 8895975287 | Objective POV | statements that reflect only what is seen, heard, and observed; can NOT be argued against | 102 |
