Terms : Hide Images
| 3911774003 | Allegory | Story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or abstract ideas or qualities; Dante's Inferno, Lord of the Flies | 0 | |
| 3911774004 | Alliteration | Repetition of the same or similar consonant sound in words that are close together | 1 | |
| 3911774005 | Allusion | Reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture | 2 | |
| 3911774006 | Ambiguity | Deliberately suggesting 2+ different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. May be interpreted in more than one way- done on purpose; not on purpose it is vague and detracts from work | 3 | |
| 3911774007 | Analogy | Comparison made between two things to show likeness | 4 | |
| 3911774008 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent | 5 | |
| 3911774009 | Anastrophe | Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of he parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphonium. Fancy for inversion. | 6 | |
| 3911774010 | Anecdote | Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, shows character of individual | 7 | |
| 3911774011 | Antagonist | Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero/protagonist, in a story | 8 | |
| 3911774012 | Antimetabole | Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical structure; in poetry a chiasmus | 9 | |
| 3911774013 | Antithesis | Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure | 10 | |
| 3911774014 | Antihero | Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes; may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples | 11 | |
| 3911774015 | Anthropomorphism | Attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object; personification | 12 | |
| 3911774016 | Aphorism | Brief, cleverly worded state mum that makes a wise observation about life, or if a principle or accepted general truth. Maxim, epigraph | 13 | |
| 3911774017 | Apostrophe | Calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or place or thing, or peso modules abstract idea. Invocation if to a god or goddess. | 14 | |
| 3911774018 | Apposition | Placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first, often set off by colon | 15 | |
| 3911774019 | Assonance | Repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together | 16 | |
| 3911774020 | Asyndeton | Commas used without conjunction to desperate a series of words, this emphasizing the parts equally; instead of "X, Y, and Z" it's "X, Y, Z". | 17 | |
| 3911774021 | Balance | Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance. Sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special purpose | 18 | |
| 3911774022 | Characterization | Process by which writer reveals personality of a character | 19 | |
| 3911774023 | Indirect characterization | Author reveals character by describing how character looks, dresses, what they say, revealing their private thoughts and feelings, and their effect on other people | 20 | |
| 3911774024 | Direct characterization | The author tells us directly what the character is like; romantic style literature relied heavily on this | 21 | |
| 3911774025 | Static character | One who doesn't change much over the course of a story | 22 | |
| 3911774026 | Dynamic character | Changes in important ways as a result of the story's action | 23 | |
| 3911774027 | Flat character | Only one or two personality traits, easily summed up in one phrase | 24 | |
| 3911774028 | Round character | Complex, 3-D character, like a real person | 25 | |
| 3911774029 | Chiasmus | Poetry- type of rhetorical balance where second part is syntactically balanced against the first but with parts reversed; "flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike". Antimetabole | 26 | |
| 3911774030 | Cliche | Word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. "Avoid cliches like the plague." | 27 | |
| 3911774031 | Colloquialism | Word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. "Our of his head/gonna go for" | 28 | |
| 3911774032 | Comedy | Story that ends with a happy resolution of conflicts faced by main character(s) | 29 | |
| 3911774033 | Conceit | Elaborate metaphor, compares two things that are startlingly different; extended metaphor | 30 | |
| 3911774034 | Confessional poetry | Twentieth century term; poetry that uses intimate material from a poet's life | 31 | |
| 3911774035 | Conflict | Struggle between opposing forces or characters in a stroy | 32 | |
| 3911774036 | External conflict | Two people, person and nature, person and machine, person and whole society | 33 | |
| 3911774037 | Internal conflict | Internal, involving opposing forces within a person's mind | 34 | |
| 3911774038 | Connotation | Associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase | 35 | |
| 3911774039 | Couplet | Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry | 36 | |
| 3911774040 | Dialect | A way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area | 37 | |
| 3911774041 | Diction | Speaker or writer's choice of words | 38 | |
| 3911774042 | Didactic | Form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking | 39 | |
| 3911774043 | Elegy | Poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died | 40 | |
| 3911774044 | Eulogy | Great praise or commendation, laudatory speech, often about the dead | 41 | |
| 3911774045 | Epanalepsis | Device of repetition in which the same expression (word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence. "Common sense is not so common." | 42 | |
| 3911774046 | Epic | Long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society | 43 | |
| 3911774047 | Epigraph | Quotation of aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme | 44 | |
| 3911774048 | 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 (opposite of anaphora) | 45 | |
| 3911774049 | Epithet | Adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. "Father of our country" "the great Emancipator" | 46 | |
| 3911774050 | Homeric epithet | Compound adjective used with a person or thing "swift-footed Achilles" "rosy-fingered dawn" | 47 | |
| 3911774051 | Essay | Short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject | 48 | |
| 3911995128 | Argumentation | Form of discourse that uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeal to develop effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way | 49 | |
| 3911995129 | Persuasion | Relies on emotional appeal rather than facta | 50 | |
| 3911995130 | Argument | Form of persuasion that appeals to reason rather than emotion | 51 | |
| 3911995131 | Causal relationship | One thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument | 52 | |
| 3911995132 | Description | Uses language to create a mood or emotion | 53 | |
| 3911995133 | Exposition | Form of discourse where something is explained or "set forth" | 54 | |
| 3911995134 | Narrative | Tells about a series of evenys | 55 | |
| 3911995135 | Explication | Act of interpreting or discovering meaning of a text, usually involved close reading and special attention to figurative language | 56 | |
| 3911995136 | Fable | Short story in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson on how to succeed in life | 57 | |
| 3911995137 | Farce | Type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations | 58 | |
| 3911995138 | Figurative language | Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common | 59 | |
| 3911995139 | Flashback | Scene that interrupts the normal chronological order of events in a story to depict something that happened earlier | 60 | |
| 3911995140 | Foil | Character who acts as contrast to another character; funny sidekick to the dashing hero or a villain contrasting the hero | 61 | |
| 3911995141 | Foreshadowing | Use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot | 62 | |
| 3911995142 | Free Verse | Poetry that doesn't conform to regular meter or rhyme scheme | 63 | |
| 3911995143 | Hyperbole | Figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect. "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times." | 64 | |
| 3911995144 | Hypotactic | Sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. (Just one is hypotaxis) "I am tired because it is hot." | 65 | |
| 3911995145 | Imagery | Use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or experience | 66 | |
| 3911995146 | Inversion | Reversal of normal word order in a sentence or phrase | 67 | |
| 3911995147 | Irony | Discrepancy between appearances and reality | 68 | |
| 3911995148 | Verbal irony | Someone says one thing but means something else | 69 | |
| 3911995149 | Situational irony | Discrepancy between what's expected/appropriate to happen and what actually happens | 70 | |
| 3911995150 | Dramatic irony | Often used on stage; character thinks one thing is true but audience knows otherwise | 71 | |
| 3911995151 | Juxtaposition | Poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating surprise and wit; form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas, images, or metaphors. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." | 72 | |
| 3911995152 | Litotes | Form of understatement in which positive form is emphasized through negation of negative form. "Wedging their not unsubstantial persons." | 73 | |
| 3912052253 | Local Color | Term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect, and landscape. | 74 | |
| 3912052254 | Loose sentence | One in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units. (Periodic sentence) | 75 | |
| 3912052255 | Lyric poem | Poem that doesn't tell a story but expresses personal feelings or thoughts and feelings. Ballad tells a story | 76 | |
| 3912233465 | Metaphor | Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without use of specific comparison words | 77 | |
| 3912233466 | Implied metaphor | Does not state explicitly the two terms of comparison. "I like to see it lap the miles." | 78 | |
| 3912233467 | Extended metapjor | Metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it (conceit if it's quite elaborate) | 79 | |
| 3912233468 | Dead metaphor | Metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid. "Seat of the government" "knotty problem" | 80 | |
| 3912233469 | Mixed metaphor | Metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes it's terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. "The president is a lame duck who is running out of gas" | 81 | |
| 3912233470 | Metonymy | Figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it. Crown=monarch | 82 | |
| 3912233471 | Mood | Atmosphere created by a writer's diction and details selected | 83 | |
| 3912233472 | Motif | Recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or several by one author) unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones or new ideas to the theme. "So it goes" in Slaughterhouse-Five | 84 | |
| 3912385221 | Motivation | Reason for character's behavior | 85 | |
| 3912385222 | Onomatopoeia | Use of words whose sounds echo their sense; "pop" "zap" | 86 | |
| 3912385223 | Oxymoron | Figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. "Jumbo shrimp" "pretty ugly" "bitter-sweet" | 87 | |
| 3912385224 | Parable | Relatively short story that teaches a moral lesson about how to lead a good life | 88 | |
| 3912385225 | Paradox | Statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a kind of truth | 89 | |
| 3912385226 | Koan paradox | Used in Zen Buddhism to gain intuitive knowledge. "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" | 90 | |
| 3912385227 | Parallel structure (parallelism) | repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures | 91 | |
| 3912385228 | Parody | Work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style | 92 | |
| 3912385229 | Periodic | Sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after the introductory elements | 93 | |
| 3912926792 | Personificiation | Figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes. | 94 | |
| 3912926793 | Plot | Series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called storyline | 95 | |
| 3912926794 | Exposition | First characteristic of plot; Introduces characters, situation, and setting | 96 | |
| 3912926795 | Rising Action | Second characteristic of plot; complications in conflict and situations (may introduce new ones as well) | 97 | |
| 3912926796 | Climax | Third characteristic of plot; point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest. Also, turning point. | 98 | |
| 3912926797 | Resolution | Fourth and final characteristic of plot; conclusion of a story when all or most of the conflicts have been settled. Often called the denouement | 99 | |
| 3912926798 | Point of view | Vantage point from which the writer tells the story | 100 | |
| 3912926799 | First person pov | One of the characters tell the story | 101 | |
| 3912926800 | Third person pov | Unknown narrator tells the story but focuses on the thoughts and feelings of one character | 102 | |
| 3912926801 | Omniscient pov | All knowing narrator tells the story using third person pronouns; tells about many characters | 103 | |
| 3912926802 | Objective pov | Narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story with no comment on any characters or events | 104 | |
| 3912926803 | Polysyndeton | Sentence which uses conjunction with NO commas to separate be items in a series. Instead of "X, Y, and Z", it's "X and Y and Z". | 105 | |
| 3912926804 | Protagonist | Central character of a story who initiates and rives the action. Hero, anti-hero, or tragic hero | 106 | |
| 3912926805 | Hamartia (tragic flaw) | Leads to a tragic hero's downfall | 107 | |
| 3912934860 | Pun | Play on words based on multiple meanings of a single word or words that sound alike but mean different things | 108 | |
| 3912980826 | Quatrain | Poem consisting of four lines, for four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit | 109 | |
| 3912980827 | Refrain | Word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated for effect several times in a poem | 110 | |
| 3912980828 | Rhythm | Rise and fall of voice produced by the aliterate on of stressed and unstressed syllables in language | 111 | |
| 3912980829 | Rhetoric | Art of effective communication, especially persuasive devices | 112 | |
| 3912980830 | Rhetorical question | Question asked for effect, not actually requiring an answer | 113 | |
| 3912980831 | Romance | Story which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful | 114 | |
| 3912980832 | Satire | Type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about change | 115 | |
| 3912980833 | Simile | Explicit comparison between two unlike things using words such as "like", "as", "than", or "resembles". | 116 | |
| 3913113992 | Soliloquy | Long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage | 117 | |
| 3913113993 | Stereotype | Fixed idea or conception of a character or idea which does not allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social, or racial prejudices | 118 | |
| 3913113994 | Stream of Consciousness | Style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind | 119 | |
| 3913113995 | Style | Distinctive way in which a writer uses language; a writer's distinctive use of diction, tone, and syntax | 120 | |
| 3913113996 | Suspense | Feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story | 121 | |
| 3913113997 | Symbol | Person, place, thing, or event that has meaning itself and that also stands for something more than itself | 122 | |
| 3913113998 | Synecdoche | Figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. "If you don't drive properly, you will lose your wheels"- wheels=car | 123 | |
| 3913113999 | Syntactic fluency | Ability to create a variety of sentence structures appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length | 124 | |
| 3913114000 | Syntactic permutation | Sentence structure that are extraordinarily complex and involved. Often hard to follow | 125 | |
| 3913114001 | Tall Tale | Outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable | 126 | |
| 3913114002 | Telegraphic Sentence | Sentence shorter than five words in length | 127 | |
| 3913114003 | Theme | Insight about human life revealed in a literary work | 128 | |
| 3913114004 | Tone | Attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction; figurative language, and organization | 129 | |
| 3913114005 | Tragedy | A story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to an unhappy end | 130 | |
| 3913114006 | Tricolon | Sentence with three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses | 131 | |
| 3913114007 | Understatement | Statement that says less than what's meant; about a tornado- "it's a bit breezy" | 132 | |
| 3913114008 | Unity | Unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle; dependent upon coherence | 133 | |
| 3913114009 | Vernacular | Language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality | 134 |
