Terms : Hide Images
| 4612876320 | Abstract | theoretical, not concrete, difficult to understand Ex:freedom, success | 0 | |
| 4612876321 | Adage | A wise saying or proverb. Short memorable saying Ex: "Slow and steady wins the race"- The Hare and the Tortoise | 1 | |
| 4612876530 | Allegory | story,picture, or poem that reveals a hidden meaning a moral or political one. (perhaps a symbol) Ex: Lord of the Flies- Island representing the world. - Piggy's glasses symbolizing knowledge. | 2 | |
| 4612876531 | Alliteration | repetition of sounds having the same first consonant sound. Also to reinforce meaning, unify ideas and/or supply a musical sound Ex: She sells seashells. A big bully beats a little boy. | 3 | |
| 4612876532 | Allusion | direct or indirect reference to something commonly known, can be historical or an event,book,myth,place etc. EX: referring to Hitler -referring to Atlas | 4 | |
| 4612876689 | Ambiguity | multiple meaning, either intentional or unintentional Ex: A good life depends on a good liver. | 5 | |
| 4612876690 | Anachronism | something out of proper time Ex:"Brutus: Peace! Count the clock. Cassius: The clock has stricken three." ("Julius Caesar") | 6 | |
| 4612876902 | Analogy | similarity or comparison between different two things that are similar in a way. To make writing more vivid or engaging Ex: You are as annoying as nails on a chalkboard. | 7 | |
| 4612876903 | Anecdote | short story about a particular person or event Ex:"I'll tell you a family secret," she whispered enthusiastically. "It's about the butler's nose. Do you want to hear about the butler's nose?" "That's why I came over to-night." (The Great Gatsby) | 8 | |
| 4612877358 | Antagonism | opposition or active hostility (conflict) Ex:To my way of thinkin', Mr Finch, taking the one man who's done you and this town a great favour an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight- to me, that's a sin. It's a sin and I'm not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man, it'd be different. But not this man, Mr Finch." (To kill a Mocking Bird) | 9 | |
| 4612877489 | Antithesis | direct opposite. two opposite ideas creating a contrasting effect Ex: "To err is human; to forgive divine." (An Essay On Criticism) | 10 | |
| 4612877490 | Aphorism | truth or opinion being expressed briefly that makes a wise observation of life Ex: Life's Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. (Benjamin Franklin) | 11 | |
| 4612877857 | Apostrophe | figure of speech that addresses something absent or nonhuman Ex: "Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) | 12 | |
| 4612878061 | Archetype | character,action, or situation that represents such universal patterns of human nature - a perfect example of something Ex: Glinda from "The Wizard of Oz" | 13 | |
| 4612878062 | Assonance | use of words that have the same or similar repeat the same vowel sound Ex:"Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came." (Early Moon) | 14 | |
| 4612878213 | Ballad | a song or a poem written in four-line stanzas narrated in a direct style Ex: Stagolee was a bad man They go down in a coal mine one night Robbed a coal mine They's gambling down there' (Stagolee) | 15 | |
| 4612878214 | Bathos | overly sentimental or insincere to evoke pity in literature Ex:MARY: John - once we had something that was pure, and wonderful, and good. What's happened to it? JOHN: You spent it all. (I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again) | 16 | |
| 4612878343 | Blank Verse | un-rhyming verse in iambic pentameter Ex: But, woe is me, you are so sick of late, So far from cheer and from your former state, That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must..... (Hamlet) | 17 | |
| 4612878344 | Caesura | rhetorical break in the middle of a line of verse Ex: "I hear lake water lapping || with low sounds by the shore..." (The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats) | 18 | |
| 4612878347 | Canon | a set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature Ex: The Bible | 19 | |
| 4612878577 | Caricature | drawing that makes someone look funny or foolish in an exaggerated way |  | 20 |
| 4612878578 | Climax | when the tension hits the highest point Ex: "And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! Now, Tybalt, take the 'villain' back again That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio's soul Is but a little way above our heads," As soon as he killed Tybalt, Romeo says: "O! I am Fortune's Fool!" (Romeo and Juliet) | 21 | |
| 4612878760 | Colloquial | ordinary conversation rather than formal speech or writing (informal way of speaking) Ex:"Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains, call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run? Saucy pedantic wretch," (The Sun Rising) | 22 | |
| 4612879002 | Conceit | extended metaphor, a fanciful expression Ex:"Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind; For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is, Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs; Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them, Without a sudden calm, will overset Thy tempest-tossed body." (Romeo and Juliet) | 23 | |
| 4612879003 | Connotation | idea implied or suggested Ex:"Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" (Shakespeare Sonnet 18) | 24 | |
| 4612880119 | Consonance | repetition of consonant sound Ex:A Quietness distilled As Twilight long begun, Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon— (As imperceptibly as Grief) | 25 | |
| 4612880120 | Couplet | a pair of lines that rhyme that can and cannot constitute a separate stanza in a poem Ex:"The time is out of joint, O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right!" (Hamlet) | 26 | |
| 4612880411 | Diction | the choice of words in speech or writing Ex: "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on" (Ode to the Grecian Urn) | 27 | |
| 4612880412 | Deus ex machina | use of an artificial device to solve a problem Ex:Lord of the Rings: Magical, gigantic eagles arrive to save Gandalf when he is trapped on top of a tower by evil wizard Saruman with no hope of escape. | 28 | |
| 4612880583 | Elegy | form of literature defined as a poem or song, typically laments or mourns the death of an individual Ex: "With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise." (In Memory of W. B. Yeats, by W. H. Auden) | 29 | |
| 4612880584 | Ellipsis | literary device to omit parts of a sentence event to give the reader a break to fill in the gaps, replaced with three periods Ex:The vast flapping sheet flattened itself out, and each shove of the brush revealed fresh legs, hoops, horses, glistening reds and blues, beautifully smooth, until half the wall was covered with the advertisement of a circus; a hundred horsemen, twenty performing seals, lions, tigers...Craning forwards, for she was short-sighted, she read it out... "will visit this town," she read. (To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf) | 30 | |
| 4612880854 | Enjambment | run on line of poetry with no break or end punctuation Ex: "April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers." (The Waste Land by T.S Eliot) | 31 | |
| 4612880855 | Epic | long narrative poem usually related to heroic deeds of a person Ex: "Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 32 | |
| 4615695205 | Epigram | surprising and memorable satirical statement (brief poem) Ex: "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put and end to mankind." - John F. Kennedy | 33 | |
| 4615695206 | Euphemism | polite indirect expressions to replace phrases considered impolite Ex:"I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs."(Othello) | 34 | |
| 4615695627 | Exposition | often at the beginning of work to introduce background information Ex: The Three Little Bears "Once upon a time there were three bears..." | 35 | |
| 4615695698 | Fable | a brief story intended to provide a moral or a lesson at the end Ex:"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies... and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end.... No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery...." (Animal Farm by George Orwell) | 36 | |
| 4615696052 | Falling Action | right after the climax when the main problem of the story is solved Ex: The Fault in Our Stars: 2 young people have cancer and they fall in love, the tour in Amsterdam is the climax when they express their feelings. Falling action isd when they return and Hazel decides to care for Augustus since his health is worsening. | 37 | |
| 4615696303 | Farce | genre and type of comedy that is exaggerated and the humorous situations are aimed to entertain the audience Ex: Oscar Wilde's, The Importance of Being Earnest, | 38 | |
| 4615696505 | First-person narrative | narrative told by a character involved in the story ,using pronouns such as I and we Ex:"And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | 39 | |
| 4615696506 | Flashback | present action is interrupted so the reader can see the past events Ex: The Bible-Book of Matthew | 40 | |
| 4615696595 | Foil | a character that is mainly opposite to the main character or one who is almost the same Ex: "Wuthering Heights" | 41 | |
| 4615696964 | Foreshadowing | an advanced hint of what is to come to build suspense Ex: "Life were better ended by their hate, Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love" (Romeo and Juliet) | 42 | |
| 4615696965 | Free Verse | free from limitations, does not rhyme with fixed forms (poetry) Ex:Come slowly, Eden Lips unused to thee. Bashful, sip thy jasmines, As the fainting bee, Reaching late his flower, Round her chamber hums, Counts his nectars—alights, And is lost in balms! (Come Slowly, Eden by Emily Dickinson) | 43 | |
| 4615697099 | Genre | type of art, literature, or music characterized by a specific form Ex: Fiction, NonFiction, Rap, Country | 44 | |
| 4615697100 | Hyperbole | figure of speech, exaggeration of ideas for emphasis Ex:I am dying of shame. | 45 | |
| 4615697275 | Imagery | use of figurative language to represent ideas, actions, or objects to appeal our physical senses Ex:"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;" (Romeo and Juliet) | 46 | |
| 4615697465 | In medias res | in the middle of things Ex: Homer's Odyssey | 47 | |
| 4615697466 | Irony | figure of speech, intended meaning is different than the real meaning. Difference in appearance and reality (dramatic and situational) Ex:"Go ask his name: if he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed." (Romeo and Juliet) | 48 | |
| 4615697606 | Juxtapose | to place side by side Ex: A Tale of Two Cities | 49 | |
| 4615697607 | Litotes | use of double negatives, form of understatement Ex:"I am not unaware how the productions of the Grub Street brotherhood have of late years fallen under many prejudices." (Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub) | 50 | |
| 4615697613 | Lyric | poet's personal interpretation of the world Ex: Sonnet Number 18 William Shakespeare | 51 | |
| 4615697789 | Metaphor | comparison without the use of like or as Ex:My sister was boiling mad. (This implies she was too angry.) | 52 | |
| 4615697790 | Meter | stressed or unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse Ex:If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, (Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare) | 53 | |
| 4615697791 | Metonymy | something is referred to y using the name of something that is associated with it Ex: "Julies Caesar" Act I | 54 | |
| 4615697992 | Mood | the feeling or atmosphere that the writer provokes the reader Ex: "The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on." (Pickwick Papers) | 55 | |
| 4615697993 | Motif | object or idea that repeats throughout literature Ex: "Frailty, thy name is woman" (Hamlet) | 56 | |
| 4615698137 | Narrator | related events or reports presented in a logical sequence Ex: Animal Farm | 57 | |
| 4615698138 | Ode | form of poetry such as a sonnet etc. Lyric poem usually serious and respectful toward the subject Ex: "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley | 58 | |
| 4615698630 | Omniscient point of view | the narrator knows everything about the characters and all their problems (3rd person) Ex: "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott | 59 | |
| 4615698631 | Onomatopoeia | imitating the natural sounds of a thing Ex: Boom -The sack fell into the river with a splash. | 60 | |
| 4615698797 | Oxymoron | two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect Ex: Living death -Romeo and Juliet | 61 | |
| 4615698798 | Parable | a story to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson Ex: book of Luke | 62 | |
| 4615698799 | Paradox | self contradictory but in reality expresses a possible truth Ex:"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". (Animal Farm) | 63 | |
| 4615698972 | Parody | imitation of a specific writer, artist, or genre Ex: The Daily Show | 64 | |
| 4615698973 | Pastoral | literature dealing with rural life Ex:The Passionate Shepherd to His Love | 65 | |
| 4615699124 | Pathos | appeal to emotion Ex: "He had meant the best in the world, and been treated like a dog—like a very dog. She would be sorry someday—maybe when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die TEMPORARILY!" (Mark Twain- Adventures of Tom Sawyer) | 66 | |
| 4615699125 | Persona | an individual pattern of thinking, feeling and acting Ex: A duke character (My Last Duchess by Robert Browning) | 67 | |
| 4615699129 | Personification | figure of speech, object or animal is given human feelings,thoughts, or attitudes Ex: "When well-appareled April on the heel Of limping winter treads." (Romeo and Juliet) | 68 | |
| 4615699265 | Plot | sequence of events Ex: Harry from Harry Potter learns that the Professor Snape is after Sorcerer's Stone. | 69 | |
| 4615699266 | Protagonist | the main character Ex: Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying | 70 | |
| 4615699392 | Quatrain | verse with four line stanza Ex:He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. (Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost) | 71 | |
| 4615699393 | Realism | show life as it is rather than what it should be Ex: Charles Dickens, Mark Twain | 72 | |
| 4615699395 | Refrain | a set of lines that are repeated several times over a poem Ex: And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. (Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost) | 73 | |
| 4615699629 | Rhetorical Question | a question asked for effect or for emphasis on some point when no real answer is expected Ex:JULIET: "Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. Montague? (Romeo and Juliet) | 74 | |
| 4615699630 | Rhyme | the repetition of sounds at the end of words Ex: "Twinkle, twinkle little star How I wonder what you are " | 75 | |
| 4615699844 | Rhythm | long or short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables in verse form Ex: Song by Sir John Suckling | 76 | |
| 4615699845 | Rising Action | events that lead up to the climax Ex: In Twilight when James feels the smell of Bella. | 77 | |
| 4615699976 | Sarcasm | to mock with satirical or ironic remarks to amuse and hurt Ex:"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." (Mark Twain) | 78 | |
| 4615699977 | Satire | exposure of foolishness and corruption, humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule Ex:"Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law, Or some frail china jar receive a flaw, Or stain her honor, or her new brocade" (The Rape of the Lock) | 79 | |
| 4615699978 | Setting | environment in which an event or story takes place Ex: Lord of the Flies takes place on an island where the weather conditions tend to change. | 80 | |
| 4615700124 | Shakespearean Sonnet | used by Shakespeare , three quatrains and terminal couplet with rhyme pattern (14 lines) Ex: Sonnet 130 | 81 | |
| 4615700249 | Simile | figure of speech, a comparison showing the similarities using "like" or "as" Ex:"I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills." (Daffodils) | 82 | |
| 4615700250 | Soliloquy | long speech of a character alone expressing its feelings Ex:"Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man" (Doctor Faustus) | 83 | |
| 4615700707 | Stanza | a division of four or more lines (group of lines) Ex: "True wit is nature to advantage dress'd; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd." (Essay on Criticism) | 84 | |
| 4615700708 | Stereotype | a belief about a group of people Ex: On "The Big BAng Theory" Sheldon and Leonard are "nerdy scientist" who are socially awkward. | 85 | |
| 4615700866 | Structure | arrangement Ex: Sonnet 14 is written in iambic pentameter | 86 | |
| 4615700929 | Style | the way the writer writes and the technique Ex:The Pleasures of Imagination by Joseph Addison is expository writing style. | 87 | |
| 4615700930 | Syllogism | the start of an argument referring to something general. - A form of deductive reasoning Ex:(Timon Athens) "Flavius: Have you forgot me, sir? Timon: Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men; Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot thee." | 88 | |
| 4615702048 | Symbolism | an object represents an idea Ex:"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts," (As you Like It) | 89 | |
| 4615701153 | Synecdoche | a part is made to represent the whole or other way around Ex:"The western wave was all a-flame. The day was well was nigh done! Almost upon the western wave Rested the broad bright Sun" (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner") | 90 | |
| 4615701154 | Syntax | sentence structure Ex:"That night I sat on Tyan-yu's bed and waited for him to touch me. But he didn't. I was relieved." (The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan) | 91 | |
| 4615701330 | Terza Rima | three line stanza (aba bcb cdc) Ex: Divine Comedy | 92 | |
| 4615701331 | Theme | central idea Ex: Love in Romeo and Juliet | 93 | |
| 4615701332 | Tone | writer's attitude Ex: gloomy tone in "The school" | 94 | |
| 4615701600 | Tragedy | kind of drama about human suffering (downfall) Ex: The Crucible | 95 | |
| 4615701601 | Voice | form or format which narrators tell stories Ex:The Tell-Tale Heart is first person unreliable narrative voice | 96 |
