Terms : Hide Images
| 2780359023 | abstract | Language that describes qualities that cannot be perceived with the five senses | 0 | |
| 2780360863 | concrete | Language that describes qualities that can be perceived with the five senses | 1 | |
| 2780361556 | allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 2 | |
| 2780361818 | alliteration | Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other | 3 | |
| 2780362317 | allusion | A reference to a famous and often historical person, place, event, or work of literature. | 4 | |
| 2780362953 | ambiguity | Any wording, action, or symbol that can be read in divergent ways | 5 | |
| 2780367119 | anachronism | Placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period | 6 | |
| 2780367797 | anacoluthon | moving to new topic of discussion before finishing current one | 7 | |
| 2780368166 | anagnorisis | to describe the moment of tragic recognition in which the protagonist realizes some important fact or insight | 8 | |
| 2780368669 | anaphora | The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect | 9 | |
| 2780369550 | anecdote | A short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event | 10 | |
| 2780370685 | antagonist | A character or force in conflict with the main character | 11 | |
| 2780371403 | protagonist | Chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward some goal. | 12 | |
| 2780371766 | anthropomorphism | The attribution of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects | 13 | |
| 2780373764 | anti-hero | A protagonist who is a non-hero or the antithesis of a traditional hero | 14 | |
| 2780374301 | aphorism | A concise statement of a truth or principle | 15 | |
| 2780374882 | adage | A proverb or wise saying | 16 | |
| 2780375200 | maxim | A proverb, a short, pithy statement or aphorism believed to contain wisdom or insight into human nature | 17 | |
| 2780375683 | apostrophe | The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present | 18 | |
| 2780377002 | archetype | An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life | 19 | |
| 2780378169 | aside | In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words | 20 | |
| 2780378964 | assonance | Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words | 21 | |
| 2780379483 | asyndeton | The artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect | 22 | |
| 2780379667 | ballad | A narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter | 23 | |
| 2780380702 | bathos | A descent in literature in which a poet or writer--striving too hard to be passionate or elevated--falls into trivial or stupid imagery, phrasing, or ideas | 24 | |
| 2780381718 | pathos | Appeal to emotion | 25 | |
| 2780382050 | blank verse | Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents | 26 | |
| 2780382670 | free verse | Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme | 27 | |
| 2780383013 | cacophony | The term in poetry refers to the use of words that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds | 28 | |
| 2780384008 | euphony | A succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony. | 29 | |
| 2780384213 | dissonance | A harsh and disagreeable combination, often of sounds | 30 | |
| 2780385075 | caesura | A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry-an important part of poetic rhythm | 31 | |
| 2780385561 | canto | A sub-division of an epic or narrative poem comparable to a chapter in a novel | 32 | |
| 2780386166 | carpe diem | The term refers to a common moral or theme in classical literature that the reader should make the most out of life and should enjoy it before it ends | 33 | |
| 2780386784 | catharisis | An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety | 34 | |
| 2780387285 | round | Complex in temperament and motivation; drawn with subtlety; capable of growth and change during the course of the narrative | 35 | |
| 2780388296 | flat | Built around a single idea or quality and unchanging over the course of the narrative | 36 | |
| 2780389041 | chiasmus | A literary scheme in which the author introduces words or concepts in a particular order, then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed or backwards order | 37 | |
| 2780389922 | classicism | Deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity and restraint | 38 | |
| 2780390806 | neoclassicism | The movement toward classical architecture, literature, drama, and design that took place during the Restoration and Enlightenment | 39 | |
| 2780391714 | cliché | A hackneyed or trite phrase that has become overused | 40 | |
| 2780406830 | climax | The moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis reaches its point of greatest intensity and is thereafter resolved | 41 | |
| 2780407514 | colloquial | A word or phrase used everyday in plain and relaxed speech, but rarely found in formal writing | 42 | |
| 2780407724 | conceit | An elaborate or unusual comparison--especially one using unlikely metaphors, simile, hyperbole, and contradiction | 43 | |
| 2780408592 | confidant | A character in a story that the protagonist confides in and trusts | 44 | |
| 2780411315 | conflict | The opposition between two characters (such as a protagonist and an antagonist), between two large groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores, and so on | 45 | |
| 2780412079 | connotation | The extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition found in a dictionary | 46 | |
| 2780412429 | denotation | The minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation | 47 | |
| 2780413099 | consonance | A special type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by changes in the intervening vowels | 48 | |
| 2780413736 | controlling image | A literary device employing repetition so as to stress the theme of a work or a particular symbol | 49 | |
| 2780414665 | couplet | Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit | 50 | |
| 2780415726 | denouement | The outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot | 51 | |
| 2780416277 | deus ex machina | An unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve the story's conflict | 52 | |
| 2780416479 | diction | The choice of a particular word as opposed to others | 53 | |
| 2780416852 | didactic | Writing that is "preachy" or seeks overtly to convince a reader of a particular point or lesson | 54 | |
| 2780417228 | dialectic | The art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions | 55 | |
| 2780419531 | dirge | A mournful or elegiac poem or other literary work | 56 | |
| 2780421157 | dramatic monologue | A poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length | 57 | |
| 2780421859 | elegy | any poem dealing with the subject-matter common to the early Greco-Roman elegies--complaints about love, sustained formal lamentation, or somber meditations | 58 | |
| 2780422890 | eulogy | a speech or piece of writing in which you praise someone or something very much | 59 | |
| 2780426126 | elision | In poetry, when the poet takes a word that ends in a vowel, and a following word that begins with a vowel, and blurs them together to create a single syllable. In linguistics, it refers more generally to the omission of any sound in speech and writing | 60 | |
| 2780427934 | ellipsis | The artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause | 61 | |
| 2780428495 | end-stop line | In poetry, a line ending in a full pause, often indicated by appropriate punctuation such as a period or semicolon | 62 | |
| 2780429133 | enjambment | A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line | 63 | |
| 2780430030 | epigram | A short verse or motto appearing at the beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel, at the heading of a new section or paragraph of an essay or other literary work to establish mood or raise thematic concerns or a short, humorous poem, often written in couplets, that makes a satiric point | 64 | |
| 2780431253 | epilogue | A conclusion added to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem | 65 | |
| 2780431639 | epitaph | The final statement spoken by a character before his death | 66 | |
| 2780433933 | epigraph | A short sentence written on a statue, or used as an introduction to a book | 67 | |
| 2780434581 | epiphany | The standard term for the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene | 68 | |
| 2780435680 | epithet | A short, poetic nickname-often in the form of an adjective or adjectival phrase-attached to the normal name | 69 | |
| 2780436250 | epistle | Written in the form of a letter or a series of letters | 70 | |
| 2781757173 | ethos | Beliefs or character of a group | 71 | |
| 2781758881 | pathos | Appeal to emotion | 72 | |
| 2781758882 | logos | Appeal to logic | 73 | |
| 2781761208 | euphemism | Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one | 74 | |
| 2781761681 | dysphemism | A derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant or neutral one | 75 | |
| 2781763853 | existentialism | A twentieth-century philosophy arguing that ethical human beings are in a sense cursed with absolute free will in a purposeless universe | 76 | |
| 2781764621 | expletive | An oath or swear word | 77 | |
| 2781766771 | pejorative | Having bad connotations; disparaging | 78 | |
| 2781767572 | invective | Abusive language | 79 | |
| 2781768012 | figurative language | A deviation from what speakers of a language understand as the ordinary or standard use of words in order to achieve some special meaning or effect | 80 | |
| 2781769230 | flashback | A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events--usually in the form of a character's memories, dreams, narration, or even authorial commentary | 81 | |
| 2781769583 | foil | A character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character | 82 | |
| 2781770018 | foreshadowing | Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative | 83 | |
| 2781772156 | genre | A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions | 84 | |
| 2781772712 | gothic | Signifies "Germanic," then "medieval," especially in reference to the medieval architecture and art used in western Europe between 1100 and 1500 CE | 85 | |
| 2781774556 | haiku | Late addition to Japanese poetry. Consists of three lines. The first line contains five syllables, the second line contains seven, and the last line five | 86 | |
| 2781781492 | hamartia | A term from Greek tragedy that literally means "missing the mark." Signifies a tragic flaw | 87 | |
| 2781783624 | hubris | It is a negative term implying both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and also a hamartia, a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities | 88 | |
| 2781785796 | hyperbole | The trope of exaggeration or overstatement | 89 | |
| 2781789325 | litotes | Understatement, the opposite of exaggeration | 90 | |
| 2781790920 | imagery | A common term of variable meaning, it includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature | 91 | |
| 2781795090 | verbal irony | A trope in which a speaker makes a statement in which its actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express | 92 | |
| 2781797311 | situational irony | A trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate | 93 | |
| 2781798878 | dramatic irony | Involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know | 94 | |
| 2781799725 | juxtaposition | The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development | 95 | |
| 2781800889 | kenning | A form of compounding in Old English, Old Norse, and Germanic poetry. In this poetic device, the poet creates a new compound word or phrase to describe an object or activity | 96 | |
| 2781802790 | legend | It is a traditional narrative often focusing on a specific location or specific historical figure | 97 | |
| 2781807355 | limerick | A five-line closed-form poem in which the first two lines consist of anapestic trimeter, which in turn are followed by lines of anapestic dimeter, and a final line in trimeter | 98 | |
| 2781809784 | malapropism | Misusing words to create a comic effect or characterize the speaker as being too confused, ignorant, or flustered to use correct diction | 99 | |
| 2781811841 | melodrama | A dramatic form characterized by excessive sentiment, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending | 100 | |
| 2781814588 | metaphor | A comparison that establishes a figurative identity between objects being compared. | 101 | |
| 2781815237 | metaphysical | Highly abstract or theoretical; lacking physical form | 102 | |
| 2781820869 | metonymy | Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a more general idea | 103 | |
| 2781823295 | synecdoche | A rhetorical trope involving a part of an object representing the whole, or the whole of an object representing a part | 104 | |
| 2781825100 | monologue | Does not necessarily represent spoken words, but rather the internal or emotional thoughts or feelings of an individual | 105 | |
| 2781828305 | mood | In literature, a feeling, emotional state, or disposition of mind-especially the predominating atmosphere or tone of a literary work | 106 | |
| 2781829779 | motivation | Reasons why characters do what they do | 107 | |
| 2781830909 | myth | A traditional tale of deep cultural significance to a people in terms of etiology, eschatology, ritual practice, or models of appropriate and inappropriate behavior | 108 | |
| 2781832209 | narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events | 109 | |
| 2781836198 | naturalism | A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible, without artificial distortions of emotion, idealism, and literary convention | 110 | |
| 2781838309 | objective | Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts | 111 | |
| 2781839919 | subjective | based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions | 112 | |
| 2781842040 | octave | A set of eight lines that rhyme according to the pattern ABBAABBA | 113 | |
| 2781843727 | ode | A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently | 114 | |
| 2781846661 | onomatopoeia | A word that imitates the sound it represents | 115 | |
| 2781846829 | paradox | A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth | 116 | |
| 2781847043 | oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase | 117 | |
| 2781847236 | parallelism | When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length | 118 | |
| 2781847904 | parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule | 119 | |
| 2781848733 | pastoral | An artistic composition dealing with the life of shepherds or with a simple, rural existence | 120 | |
| 2781850729 | picaresque | Involving clever rogues or adventurers | 121 | |
| 2781853985 | Bildungsroman | The German term for a coming-of-age story | 122 | |
| 2781855274 | persona | An external representation of oneself which might or might not accurately reflect one's inner self, or an external representation of oneself that might be largely accurate, but involves exaggerating certain characteristics and minimizing others | 123 | |
| 2781858128 | personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 124 | |
| 2781858345 | point of view | The perspective from which a story is told | 125 | |
| 2781858592 | polysyndeton | Using many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence | 126 | |
| 2781859574 | prose | Any material that is not written in a regular meter like poetry | 127 | |
| 2781862563 | pun | A play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning | 128 | |
| 2781863262 | quatrain | A four line stanza | 129 | |
| 2781863555 | realism | An elastic and ambiguous term with two meanings. Refers generally to any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world | 130 | |
| 2781865739 | refrain | A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song--these lines repeat at regular intervals in other stanzas or sections of the same work | 131 | |
| 2781866785 | rhetorical devices | Literary techniques used to heighten the effectiveness of expression | 132 | |
| 2781867023 | rhyme | Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry | 133 | |
| 2781867561 | rhyme royal | A seven-line stanzaic form invented by Chaucer in the fourteenth century and later modified by Spenser and other Renaissance poets. The stanzas are writen in iambic pentameter in a fixed rhyme scheme (ABABBCC) | 134 | |
| 2781871650 | rhyme scheme | The pattern of rhyme | 135 | |
| 2781872723 | Romanticism | The term refers to the artistic philosophy prevalent during the first third of the nineteenth century (about 1800-1830) | 136 | |
| 2781873609 | Transcendentalism | American philosophical, religious, and literary movement roughly equivalent to the Romantic movement in England | 137 | |
| 2781875843 | satire | An attack on or criticism of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor, or a critique of what the author sees as dangerous religious, political, moral, or social standards | 138 | |
| 2781878254 | setting | The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs | 139 | |
| 2781878425 | simile | A comparison using "like" or "as" | 140 | |
| 2781879707 | solecism | Nonstandard use of grammar or words or mistakes | 141 | |
| 2781880912 | soliloquy | A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone | 142 | |
| 2781882313 | sonnet | A lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns | 143 | |
| 2781883881 | speaker | The narrator of a story, poem, or drama | 144 | |
| 2781885036 | stanza | A group of lines in a poem | 145 | |
| 2781885367 | stream of consciousness | A style of writing in which the thoughts and feelings of the writer are recorded as they occur | 146 | |
| 2781885522 | style | The author's words and the characteristic way that writer uses language to achieve certain effects | 147 | |
| 2781887257 | subplot | A minor or subordinate secondary plot, often involving a deuteragonist's struggles, which takes place simultaneously with a larger plot, usually involving the protagonist | 148 | |
| 2781887799 | syllepsis | A construction in which one word is used in two different senses | 149 | |
| 2781888557 | syllogism | A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion | 150 | |
| 2781889826 | symbolism | Frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level | 151 | |
| 2781890484 | synesthesia | A rhetorical trope involving shifts in imagery or sensory metaphors | 152 | |
| 2781890705 | syntax | The standard word order and sentence structure of a language | 153 | |
| 2781893266 | terza rima | A three-line stanza form with interlocking rhymes that move from one stanza to the next | 154 | |
| 2781898041 | theme | A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work | 155 | |
| 2781900602 | tone | The means of creating a relationship or conveying an attitude or mood | 156 | |
| 2781900999 | turn/volta | A sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion at the conclusion of the sonnet | 157 | |
| 2781902239 | understatement | The presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is | 158 | |
| 2781903399 | utopia | An imaginary place or government in which political and social perfection has been reached in the material world as opposed to some spiritual afterlife | 159 | |
| 2781904652 | dystopia | An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one | 160 | |
| 2781907005 | verisimilitude | The sense that what one reads is "real," or at least realistic and believable | 161 | |
| 2781909182 | vernacular | The everyday or common language of a geographic area or the native language of commoners in a country as opposed to a prestigious dead language maintained artificially in schools or in literary texts | 162 | |
| 2781910726 | verse | A line of metrical writing, a stanza, or any composition written in meter | 163 | |
| 2781915797 | vignette | A short composition showing considerable skill, especially such a composition designed with little or no plot or larger narrative structure | 164 | |
| 2781916689 | villanelle | A versital genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five tercets and a concluding quatrain | 165 | |
| 2781920339 | voice | A writer's unique use of language that allows a reader to perceive a human personality in his or her writing | 166 |
