Terms : Hide Images
| 7315079734 | Antithesis | A contrast of opposition between two things | 0 | |
| 7315079735 | Antihero | A hero in a story who doesn't possess regular hero characteristics | 1 | |
| 7315082826 | Anthropomorphism | the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, object | 2 | |
| 7315082827 | Aphorism | A succinct observation that contains a general truth | 3 | |
| 7315084561 | Apostrophe | When a speaker or writer addresses an imaginary character or a character outside the story. | 4 | |
| 7315084562 | Apposition | A relation between syntactic expressions, usually consecutive, that have the same function and same relation to other elements in the sentence, the second expression identifying or supplementing the first | 5 | |
| 7315086443 | Assonance | The repetition of stressed vowel syllables in non-rhyming words in close proximity | 6 | |
| 7315086444 | Asyndeton | The omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence | 7 | |
| 7315089562 | Balance | A sentence made up of two segments which are equal, not only in length, but in grammatical structure and meaning | 8 | |
| 7429581907 | Characterization | Process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. | 9 | |
| 7429593949 | Indirect Characterization | The author explains the characteristics of the character by explaining the character's effect on people, what the character says, or showing the character in action. The author doesn't directly talk about the characteristics of the character. Common in modern literature | 10 | |
| 7429624811 | Direct Characterization | The author gives adjectives on the character (i.e. sneaky, generous, kind) Common in romantic literature. | 11 | |
| 7429646510 | Static Character | A character who doesn't change throughout the course of the story. | 12 | |
| 7429653544 | Dynamic Character | A character who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action. | 13 | |
| 7429661069 | Flat Character | A character with only one or two personality traits. | 14 | |
| 7429670498 | Round Character | A complex character with multiple dimensions to their personality | 15 | |
| 7429681628 | 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. | 16 | |
| 7429705598 | Cliché | A lifeless figure of speech because of overuse. When writing don't use clichés. | 17 | |
| 7429718776 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing bus is inappropriate for formal situations. Example: "He's out of his head if he thinks I'm gonna go for such a stupid idea." | 18 | |
| 7429734911 | Allegory | Story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral of political one. | 19 | |
| 7429744050 | Alliteration | Occurrence of same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. | 20 | |
| 7429752214 | Allusion | Expression deigned to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly. | 21 | |
| 7429759893 | Ambiguity | The quality of being open to more than one interpretation. | 22 | |
| 7429765496 | Analogy | A thing that is comparable to something else in significant respects. | 23 | |
| 7429773999 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. | 24 | |
| 7429777375 | Anastrophe | Inversion of the usual order of words or clauses. | 25 | |
| 7429781578 | Anecdote | A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. | 26 | |
| 7429789929 | Antagonist | A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something. | 27 | |
| 7429798950 | Antimetabole | Repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order. Example: I know what I like, and I like what I know. | 28 | |
| 7731080700 | Comedy | In general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of conflicts faced by the main character or character. | 29 | |
| 7731090263 | Conceit | An elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor. | 30 | |
| 7731105382 | Confessional Poetry | A twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet's life. | 31 | |
| 7731109931 | Conflict | The struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story. | 32 | |
| 7731115994 | External Conflict | Conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society. | 33 | |
| 7731124396 | Internal Conflict | A conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person's mind. | 34 | |
| 7731137866 | Connotation | The associations and emotional overtone that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition. | 35 | |
| 7731146107 | Couplet | Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry. | 36 | |
| 7731152324 | Dialect | A way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area. | 37 | |
| 7731190437 | Diction | A speaker or writer's choice of words. | 38 | |
| 7906460157 | Didactic | Form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior of thinking | 39 | |
| 7906468570 | 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 | |
| 7906481785 | Epanalepsis | Device of repetition in which the same expression is repeated both at the beginning and end of the line, clause, or sentence. Voltaire: "Common sense is not so common." | 41 | |
| 7906505469 | 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 | |
| 7906512856 | Epigraph | A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme. | 43 | |
| 7906518171 | Epistrophe | Device of repetition in which the same expression is treated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences, opposite of anaphora | 44 | |
| 7906529793 | 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. | 45 | |
| 7906612663 | Essay | A short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject. | 46 | |
| 7906624874 | 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. | 47 | |
| 7906640971 | Persuasion | relies more on emotional appeals than on facts | 48 | |
| 7906644041 | argument | form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way. | 49 | |
| 7906651208 | Casual Relationship | Form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument. | 50 | |
| 7906730213 | Description | a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or emotion | 51 | |
| 7906736003 | exposition | one of the four major forms of discourse in which something is explained or "set forth" | 52 | |
| 7906741787 | narrative | the form of discourse that tells about a series of events | 53 | |
| 8156257183 | Explication | act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language. | 54 | |
| 8156266874 | Fable | A very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how succeed in life. | 55 | |
| 8156278469 | Farce | A type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations. | 56 | |
| 8156293852 | Figurative Language | Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms. | 57 | |
| 8156302309 | Flashback | A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time. | 58 | |
| 8156313077 | 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. | 59 | |
| 8156324132 | Foreshadowing | The use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot. | 60 | |
| 8156329473 | Free verse | poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme | 61 | |
| 8156334084 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect. | 62 | |
| 8156344192 | Hypotactic | A sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. (Use of such syntactic subordination off just one clause to another is known as hypotaxis). I am tired because it is hot. | 63 | |
| 8240221509 | Imagery | the use of language to evoke a picture of a concrete sensation of a person a thing, a place, or an experience. | 64 | |
| 8240228657 | Inversion | the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase | 65 | |
| 8240235551 | Irony | a discrepancy between appearances and reality. | 66 | |
| 8240262617 | Verbal irony | occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else. | 67 | |
| 8240298245 | 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. | 68 | |
| 8240310171 | 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. | 69 | |
| 8240322709 | juxtaposition | Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts | 70 | |
| 8240334965 | litotes | a type of understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite | 71 | |
| 8240361246 | 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. | 72 | |
| 8240389032 | Loose sentence | Sentence where the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units (cumulative sentence) | 73 | |
| 8561717922 | Lyric poem | A poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of a speaker, a ballad tells a story | 74 | |
| 8561722177 | metaphor | A comparison of two unlike things without using the word like or as. | 75 | |
| 8561739604 | implied metaphor | Implies or suggests the comparison between the two thing without stating it directly | 76 | |
| 8561755066 | extended metaphor | a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it. | 77 | |
| 8561836968 | dead metaphor | a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid | 78 | |
| 8561838788 | mixed metaphor | a combination of two or more incompatible metaphors, which produces a ridiculous effect | 79 | |
| 8561845221 | metonymy | substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it | 80 | |
| 8561847918 | mood | Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader | 81 | |
| 8561864749 | motif | recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work | 82 | |
| 8561885146 | motivation | the reason's for a character's behavior | 83 | |
| 8561888649 | onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds each their sense | 84 | |
| 8561891180 | oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. | 85 | |
| 8561915580 | parable | A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson | 86 | |
| 8561921050 | paradox | an apparently contradictory statement that actually contains some truth | 87 | |
| 8561922918 | koan | a paradox used in Zen Buddhism to gain intuitive knowledge | 88 | |
| 8789995583 | Parallel Structure | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures | 89 | |
| 8790003064 | Paratactic Sentence | simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. I am tired: it is hot. | 90 | |
| 8790027336 | parody | a work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner | 91 | |
| 8790032383 | periodic | main clause is at the end of the sentence | 92 | |
| 8790048740 | personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 93 | |
| 8790053463 | plot | Sequence of events in a story | 94 | |
| 8790058056 | exposition | a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory | 95 | |
| 8790064717 | rising action | Events leading up to the climax | 96 | |
| 8790070499 | climax | Most exciting moment of the story; turning point | 97 | |
| 8790075537 | resolution | End of the story where loose ends are tied up | 98 | |
| 8790078522 | point of view | the perspective from which a story is told | 99 | |
| 8790082400 | first person point of view | a character in the story is actually telling the story himself/herself | 100 | |
| 8790086723 | third person point of view | someone on the outside is looking in and telling the story as he/she see it unfold. | 101 | |
| 8790102510 | omniscient point of view | the narrator is capable of knowing, telling, and seeing all | 102 | |
| 8790105648 | objective point of view | the narrator does not enter the mind of any character but describes events from the outside | 103 | |
| 9021848372 | polysyndeton | the deliberate use of a series of conjunctions | 104 | |
| 9021856188 | protagonist | the main character | 105 | |
| 9021856191 | pun | a play on words | 106 | |
| 9021860609 | quatrain | a stanza of four lines | 107 | |
| 9021863401 | refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem. | 108 | |
| 9021867596 | rhythm | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry | 109 | |
| 9021869836 | rhetoric | the art of using language effectively and persuasively | 110 | |
| 9021875605 | rhetorical question | A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer | 111 | |
| 9021890624 | romance | an extended narrative about improbable events and extraordinary people in exotic places | 112 | |
| 9021893042 | satire | A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies. | 113 | |
| 9021901876 | soliloquy | an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers | 114 | |
| 9021932555 | stereotype | a generalized belief about a group of people | 115 | |
| 9021941697 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind. | 116 | |
| 9021941815 | suspense | Uncertainty or anxiety the reader feels about what is going to happen next in a story | 117 | |
| 9021950293 | impressionism | writing that reflects a personal image of a character, event, or concept (1867-1886) | 118 | |
| 9021974377 | modernism | artistic and literary movement sparked by a break with past conventions (1900-1965) | 119 | |
| 9021978858 | naturalism | writing that emphasizes explanation in literature through science (1860-1920) | 120 | |
| 9022027098 | plain style | a way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression (17th-19th century) | 121 | |
| 9022064242 | puritanism | beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans, very strict code of conduct (1600s) | 122 | |
| 9022080604 | rationalism | (philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge is acquired by reason without resort to experience (17th century) | 123 | |
| 9022090099 | realism | the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth (1865-1900) | 124 | |
| 9022105078 | regionalism | in art or literature, the practice of focusing on a particular region of the country (1865-1895) | 125 | |
| 9022111749 | romanticism | 19th century artistic movement that appealed to emotion rather than reason 1800-1850 | 126 | |
| 9022119137 | surrealism | An artistic movement that displayed vivid dream worlds and fantastic unreal images (1920-1935) | 127 | |
| 9022136685 | symbolism | The use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object. (1857-1920) | 128 | |
| 9022155638 | transcendentalism | any system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material (1830-1870) | 129 |
