Terms : Hide Images
| 2366075976 | Abstract | This type of style is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its point | 0 | |
| 2366076265 | Academic | As an adjective describing style, this word means dry and theoretical writing; when a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis | 1 | |
| 2366076743 | Accent | The stressed portion of a word. In poetry, it is often a matter of a opinion | 2 | |
| 2366077299 | Aesthetic | An adjective meaning "appealing to the senses," as a noun, it is a coherent sense of taste | 3 | |
| 2366077909 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. Aesop's "The Ant and the Grasshopper," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" | 4 | |
| 2366078624 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds | 5 | |
| 2366078625 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure | 6 | |
| 2366078626 | Anachronism | "Misplaced in time;" if the actor playing Brutus in a production of Julius Caesar forgets to take off his wristwatch | 7 | |
| 2366078627 | Analogy | A comparison; usually involve two or more symbolic parts and are employed to clarify an action or a relationship | 8 | |
| 2366078632 | Anecdote | A short narrative or story | 9 | |
| 2366078840 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that a pronoun refers to or replaces | 10 | |
| 2366078841 | Anthropomorphism | In literature, when inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation | 11 | |
| 2366079072 | Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect | 12 | |
| 2366079073 | Antihero | A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of unsavory qualities | 13 | |
| 2366082164 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying, such as" "'Classic'? A book which people praise and don't read" - Mark Twain | 14 | |
| 2366082165 | Apostrophe | An address to someone not present or to a personified object or idea | 15 | |
| 2366082166 | Archaism | The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. Authors sometimes use it to create a feeling of antiquity - "Ye Olde Candle Shoppe" | 16 | |
| 2366082167 | Aside | A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage | 17 | |
| 2366082168 | Aspect | A trait or characteristic | 18 | |
| 2366082169 | Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds, as in "Old king Cole was a merry old soul" | 19 | |
| 2366082358 | Atmosphere | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 20 | |
| 2366082359 | Ballad | A long, narrative poem usually in very regular meter and rhyme, typically has a naive folksy quality | 21 | |
| 2366082360 | Pathos | When the writing of a scene evokes a feeling of dignified pity and sympathy | 22 | |
| 2366085362 | Bathos | When writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup | 23 | |
| 2366082361 | Black Humor | The use of disturbing things in comedy; when Didi and Gogo comically debate over which should commit suicide first | 24 | |
| 2366082525 | Bombast | This is pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language; when one tries to be eloquent by using the largest, most uncommon words | 25 | |
| 2366082526 | Burlesque | A broad parody, one that takes a style or a form such as tragic drama and exaggerates it into redicolousness; a parody | 26 | |
| 2366082527 | Cacophony | In poetry, using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds | 27 | |
| 2366082734 | Cadence | The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense | 28 | |
| 2366082735 | Canto | The name for a section division in a long work of poetry, similar to the way chapters divide a novel | 29 | |
| 2366082736 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality | 30 | |
| 2366082737 | Catharsis | A term drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy; the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences having lived (vicariously) through the experiences presented on stage | 31 | |
| 2366082742 | Chorus | In drama, the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it | 32 | |
| 2366082818 | Classic | Typical, or an accepted masterpiece | 33 | |
| 2366082819 | Coinage (Neologism) | A new word, usually one invented on the spot | 34 | |
| 2366082820 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't part of accepted "schoolbook" English. For example, "I'm toasted. I'm a crispy-critter man, and now I've got this wicked headache" | 35 | |
| 2366082987 | Complex (Dense) | Suggests that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words (image, idea opposition); there are subtleties and variations; there are multiple layers of interpretation; the meaning is both explicit and implicit | 36 | |
| 2366090654 | Conceit (Controlling Image) | Refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or one developed and expanded upon over several lines; when an image dominates and shapes the entire work, it's called a "controlling image" | 37 | |
| 2366090655 | Connotation | Everything that a word suggests or implies | 38 | |
| 2366090656 | Denotation | A word's literal meaning | 39 | |
| 2366090657 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings): "a flock of sick, black-checkered ducks" | 40 | |
| 2366090945 | Couplet | A pair of lines that end in rhyme | 41 | |
| 2366090946 | Decorum | In order to observe it, a character's speech must be stylized according to her social situation and in accordance with the occasion | 42 | |
| 2366090947 | Diction | The author's choice of words | 43 | |
| 2366106503 | Syntax | The ordering and structuring of the words | 44 | |
| 2366091065 | Dirge | A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy | 45 | |
| 2366091206 | Dissonance | The grating of incompatible sounds | 46 | |
| 2366091462 | Doggerel | Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme; limericks | 47 | |
| 2366091463 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 48 | |
| 2366091464 | Dramatic Monologue | When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience | 49 | |
| 2366091465 | Elegy | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner; often use the recent death of a noted person or loved one as a starting point; the memorialize specific dead people | 50 | |
| 2366092335 | Elements | The basic techniques of each genre of literature | 51 | |
| 2366092336 | Enjambment | The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause | 52 | |
| 2366092337 | Epic | A very long narrative poem on a serious theme and in a dignified style; typically deal with glorious or profound subject matter: a great war, a heroic journey, the Fall from Eden, a battle with supernatural forces, and so on | 53 | |
| 2366092338 | Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place; usually a line or handful of lines, often serious or religious but sometimes witty and even irrelevant | 54 | |
| 2366092667 | Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality | 55 | |
| 2366092668 | Euphony | When sounds blend harmoniously | 56 | |
| 2366092884 | Explicit | To say or write something directly and clearly | 57 | |
| 2366092885 | Farce | Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, meant simply a funny play, a comedy | 58 | |
| 2366092886 | Feminine Rhyme | Lines rhymed by their final two syllables: "running" and "grunning" Properly, the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed | 59 | |
| 2366093264 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast | 60 | |
| 2366093265 | Foot | The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry, formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed | 61 | |
| 2366093266 | Foreshadowing | An event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later | 62 | |
| 2366093267 | Free Verse | Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern | 63 | |
| 2366093268 | Genre | A subcategory of literature | 64 | |
| 2366093614 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall; an example of hamartia | 65 | |
| 2366093615 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement | 66 | |
| 2366093704 | Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly; "meaning" is definitely present but it's in the imagery, or "between the lines" | 67 | |
| 2366093705 | In Medias Res | "In the midst of things" | 68 | |
| 2366093983 | Interior Monologue | Writing that record the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head; related, but not identical to stream of consciousness; tends to be coherent, as though the character were actually talking | 69 | |
| 2366093984 | Inversion | Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase | 70 | |
| 2366093985 | Irony | A statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean | 71 | |
| 2366094105 | Lament | A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss | 72 | |
| 2366094106 | Lampoon | A satire | 73 | |
| 2366094374 | Loose Sentence | Complete before its end: "Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh, her complaining, and her terrible taste in shoes" | 74 | |
| 2366094375 | Periodic Sentence | Not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase: "Despite Barbara's irritation at Jack's peculiar habit of picking between his toes while watching MTV and his terrible haircut, she loved him" | 75 | |
| 2366094376 | Lyric | A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world; when used to describe a tone, refers to a sweet, emotional melodiousness | 76 | |
| 2366094381 | Masculine Rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable | 77 | |
| 2366094669 | Melodrama | A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure | 78 | |
| 2366094670 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing is another | 79 | |
| 2366094671 | Simile | Like a metaphor but softens the full-out equation of things, often, but not always, by using like or as | 80 | |
| 2366094863 | Metonym | A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with: "a herd of 50 cows" could be called "50 head of cattle" | 81 | |
| 2366094864 | Motif | A recurring symbol | 82 | |
| 2366094984 | Nemesis | The protagonist's archenemy or supreme and persistent difficulty | 83 | |
| 2366095202 | Objective | Kind of treatment of subject matter that consists of an impersonal or outside view of an events | 84 | |
| 2366095203 | Subjective | Kind of treatment of subject matter that uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional resposnes | 85 | |
| 2366095411 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean | 86 | |
| 2366095412 | Opposition | A pair of elements that contrast sharply; it is not necessarily "conflict" but rather a pairing of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one | 87 | |
| 2366095554 | Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction | 88 | |
| 2366095783 | Parable | A story that instructs, like a fable or an allegory | 89 | |
| 2366096374 | Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself but on closer inspection it does not | 90 | |
| 2366096375 | Parallelism | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect | 91 | |
| 2366096901 | Paraphrase | To restate phrases in your own words; to rephrase | 92 | |
| 2366096902 | Parenthetical Phrase | A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail | 93 | |
| 2366097020 | Parody | A work that makes fun of another work by exaggerating many of its qualities to ridiculousness | 94 | |
| 2366097021 | Pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature, or even more specifically, one about shepherd | 95 | |
| 2366097022 | Persona | The narrator in a non-first-person novel; in a third person novel, the author's personality, the shadow-author | 96 | |
| 2366097278 | Personification | Giving an inanimate object human qualities or form | 97 | |
| 2366097279 | Plaint | A poem or speech expressing sorrow | 98 | |
| 2366097472 | Point of View | The perspective from which the action of a novel is presented, whether the action is presented by one character or from different vantage points over the course of the novel | 99 | |
| 2366097473 | Omniscient Narrator | A third-person narrator who sees, like God, into each character's mind and understands all the action going on | 100 | |
| 2366097701 | Limited Omniscient Narrator | A third-person narrator who generally reports only what one character (usually the main character) sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character | 101 | |
| 2366097702 | Objective (Camera-Eye) Narrator | A third-person narrator who only reports on what would be visible to a camera; does not know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks of it | 102 | |
| 2366097870 | First-Person Narrator | A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view; when narrator is crazy, a liar, or very young, the narrator is unreliable | 103 | |
| 2366097871 | Stream of Consciousness Technique | Like first-person narration but instead of the character telling the story, the author places the reader inside the main character;s head and makes the reader privy to all of the character's thoughts as the scroll through her consciousness | 104 | |
| 2366097872 | Prelude | An introductory poem to a longer work of verse | 105 | |
| 2366098106 | Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play | 106 | |
| 2366098207 | Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 107 | |
| 2366098208 | Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem | 108 | |
| 2366098209 | Requiem | A song of prayer for the dead | 109 | |
| 2366098378 | Rhapsody | An intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise | 110 | |
| 2366099064 | Rhetorical Question | A question that suggests an answer | 111 | |
| 2366099205 | Satire | Exposes common character flaws in the cold light of humor; attempts to improve things by pointing out people's mistakes in the hope that once exposed, such behavior will become less common | 112 | |
| 2366099206 | Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone on stage; meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts; not meant to imply that the actor acknowledges the audience's presense | 113 | |
| 2366099207 | Stanza | A group of lines in verse, roughly analogous in function to the paragraph in prose | 114 | |
| 2366099406 | Stock Characters | Standard or cliched character types, such as the drunk, the miser, and the foolish girl | 115 | |
| 2366099407 | Subjunctive Mood | "If I were you, I'd learn this one!" Setting up a hypothetical situation, a kind of wishful thing, "I wish it were true, would it were so" | 116 | |
| 2366099408 | Suggest | To imply, infer, indicate | 117 | |
| 2366099477 | Summary | A simple retelling of what you get read | 118 | |
| 2366099478 | Suspension of Disbelief | The demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with imagination; the acceptance on an audience's or reader's part of the incidents of plot in a play or story | 119 | |
| 2366099479 | Symbolism | A device in literature where an object represents an idea | 120 | |
| 2366099612 | Synecdoche | Figure of speech in which a part represents the whole | 121 | |
| 2366099621 | Technique | The methods, the tools, the "how-she-does-it" ways of the author | 122 | |
| 2366099730 | Theme | The main idea of the overall work; the central idea; the topic of discourse or discussion | 123 | |
| 2366099870 | Thesis | The main position of an argument; the central contention that will be supported | 124 | |
| 2366100273 | Tragic Flaw | In a tragedy, this is the weakness of character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise; hamartia | 125 | |
| 2366100274 | Travesty | A grotesque parody | 126 | |
| 2366100404 | Truism | A way-too-obvious truth | 127 | |
| 2366100632 | Utopia | An idealized place; imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity, and peace | 128 | |
| 2366100804 | Zeugma | The use of a word to modify two or more words but used for different meanings: "He closed the door and his heart on his lost love" | 129 |
