Terms : Hide Images
| 202286211 | adage | a saying or proverb containing a truth based on experience and often couched in metaphorical language | |
| 202286212 | allegory | a story in which people, things and events have another meaning | |
| 202286213 | alliteration | repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables | |
| 202286214 | allusion | indirect reference to another text or historic event | |
| 202286215 | ambiguity | a vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings or interpretations | |
| 202286216 | anachronism | a person, scene, event or other element that fails to correspond with the appropriate time or era | |
| 202286217 | analogy | an extended comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things | |
| 202286218 | anecdote | a short account of an interesting event | |
| 202286219 | annotation | explanatory or critical notes added to a text | |
| 202286220 | antagonist | a character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist, produces tension or conflict | |
| 202286221 | antithesis | parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas; direct opposite of or complete contrast to something else | |
| 202286222 | apostrophe | addresses a person or personified thing not present | |
| 202286223 | appositive | a word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun | |
| 202286224 | archaic diction | the use of words common to an earlier time period; antiquated language | |
| 202286225 | archetype | an abstract or ideal conception of a type | |
| 202286226 | assertion | an emphatic statement; declaration | |
| 202286227 | aside | dramatic convention by which an actor directly addresses the audience but it is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on the stage. | |
| 202286228 | assonance | the repetition of two or more vowel sounds in a group of words in prose or poetry | |
| 202286229 | assumption | a belief or statement taken for granted without proof | |
| 202286230 | attitude | the speaker's position on a subject as revealed through his or her tone | |
| 202286231 | audience | one's listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed | |
| 202286232 | authority | a reliable, respected source - someone with knowledge | |
| 202286233 | bard | a poet; in olden times, a performer who told heroic stories to musical accompaniment | |
| 202286234 | bias | prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue | |
| 202286235 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | |
| 202286236 | burlesque | a work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque imitation | |
| 202286237 | cacophony | grating, inharmonious sounds | |
| 202286238 | canon | considered most important in a national literature or period; works widely read and studied | |
| 202286239 | caricature | a grotesque likeness of striking qualities in persons and things | |
| 202286240 | catharsis | process by which an unhealthy emotional state produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected and emotional health is restored | |
| 202286241 | characterization | method an author uses to develop characters in a work | |
| 202286242 | classical (classicism) | deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture | |
| 202286243 | caesura | pause in a line of verse that disrupts the natural rhythm | |
| 202286244 | climax | the high point, or turning point, of a story or play; the point of highest tension | |
| 202286245 | close reading | a careful reading that is attentive to organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other literary and structural elements of a text | |
| 202286246 | colloquial | an informal or conversational use of language | |
| 202286247 | common ground | shared beliefs, values, or positions | |
| 202286248 | conceit | extended metaphor | |
| 202286249 | concrete detail | a highly specific, particular, often real, actual or tangible detail; opposite of abstract | |
| 202286250 | conflict | the catalyst for action in narrative and dramatic plots, whether melodramatic, comic, or tragic. It is basically the opposition, or struggle, between two major agents | |
| 202286251 | connotation | that which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning | |
| 202286252 | consonance | the repetition of two or more consonant sounds in a group of words or a unit of speech or writing | |
| 202286253 | context | words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning | |
| 202286254 | credible | worthy of belief; trustworthy | |
| 202286255 | critique | an analysis or assessment of a thing or situation for the purpose of determining its nature, its limitations, and its conformity to a set of standards | |
| 202286256 | cynic | one who expects and observes nothing but the worst of human conduct | |
| 202286257 | denouement | the resolution that occurs at the end of a narrative or drama, real or imagined | |
| 202286258 | denotation | the literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition | |
| 202286259 | descriptive detail | graphic, exact, and accurate presentation of the characteristics of a person, place or thing | |
| 202286260 | diction | word choice | |
| 202286261 | didactic | having an instructive purpose; intending to convey information to teach a lesson usually in a dry, pompous manner | |
| 202286262 | digression | the use of material unrelated to the subject of a work | |
| 202286263 | elegiac | mournful over what has passed or been lost; often used to describe tone | |
| 202286264 | elegy | a poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing or death of someone of something of value | |
| 202286265 | empathy | a feeling of association or identification with an object or person | |
| 256242361 | enjambment | describes a line of poetry in which the sense and grammatical construction continues on to the next line | |
| 202286266 | epiphany | major character's moment of realization or awareness | |
| 202286267 | epic | a narrative poem that tells of the adventures and exploits of a hero | |
| 202286268 | epigram | a brief witty statement | |
| 202286269 | epithet | an adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality or a person or thing | |
| 202286270 | euphemism | a figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness | |
| 202286271 | euphony | pleasing, harmonious sounds | |
| 202286272 | explication of text | explanation of a text's meaning through an analysis of all of its constituent parts, including the literary devices used | |
| 202286274 | fable | a short tale often with nonhuman characters from which a useful lesson may be drawn | |
| 202286275 | fantasy | a story containing unreal, imaginary features | |
| 202286276 | farce | a comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose | |
| 202286277 | figurative language | the use of tropes or figures of speech; going beyond literal meaning to achieve literary effect; appealing to the senses | |
| 202286278 | figure of speech | an expression that strives for literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning | |
| 202286279 | flat character | character constructed around a single idea or quality (character is immediately recognizable) | |
| 202286280 | foil | character whose traits are the opposite of another and who thus points out the strengths and weaknesses of the other character. | |
| 202286281 | frame | a structure that provides a premise or setting for a narrative or other discourse | |
| 202286282 | free and indirect style | narrative style that allows the reader to see things through the character's eyes and language but also through the author's eyes and language | |
| 202286283 | genre | a term used to describe literary forms, such as novel, play, and essay | |
| 202286284 | hubris | excessive pride that often affects tone | |
| 202286285 | hyperbole | exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis | |
| 202286286 | imagery | vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses | |
| 202286287 | inference | a conclusion or proposition arrived at by considering facts, observations, or some other specific data | |
| 202286288 | intertextuality | interconnectedness among pieces of literature that have common reference points such as allusion, quotations, genre, or style | |
| 202286289 | irony | contradiction between what is said and what is meant; incongruity between action and results | |
| 202286290 | dramatic irony | a circumstance in which the audience or reader knows more about a situation than a character | |
| 202286291 | situational irony | occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite from what one had expected | |
| 202286292 | verbal irony | when the reader is aware of a discrepancy between the real meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the writer's words | |
| 202286293 | juxtaposition | placement of two things side by side for emphasis | |
| 202286294 | kenning | a device employed in Anglo-Saxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by one of its functions or qualities | |
| 202286295 | litotes | a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity | |
| 202286296 | lyrical prose | personal, reflective prose that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about the subject | |
| 202286297 | monologue | an extended speech by one character | |
| 202286298 | metaphor | a figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, thus making an implicit comparison | |
| 202286299 | Dead Metaphor | metaphor so overused that its original impact has been lost | |
| 202286301 | Mixed Metaphor | when two metaphors are jumbled together, often illogically | |
| 202286302 | metaphysical | a term describing poetry that uses elaborate conceits, expresses the complexities of love and life, and is highly intellectual | |
| 202286303 | metonymy | use of an aspect of something to represent the whole | |
| 202286304 | Middle English | the language spoken in England roughly between 1150 and 1500 A.D. | |
| 202286305 | mood | the emotional tone or prevailing atmosphere in a work of literature or other discourse. In grammar, it refers to the intent of a particular sentence | |
| 202286306 | moral | a brief and often simplistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature | |
| 202286307 | motif | a phrase, idea, or event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in an essay or other discourse | |
| 202286308 | muse | (n.) one of the ancient Greek goddesses presiding over the arts; the imaginary source of inspiration for an artist or writer. (v. To reflect deeply; to ponder) | |
| 202286309 | myth | an imaginary story that has become an accepted part of the cultural or religious tradition of a group or society | |
| 202286310 | direct characterization | to develop characters in a work, the author straightforwardly states the character's traits to develop characters in a work | |
| 202286311 | indirect characterization | to develop characters in a work with traits that are implied through what the character says, does, how the character dresses, interacts with other characters, etc | |
| 202286312 | narrative | form of verse or prose that tells a story | |
| 202286313 | narrative voice | an identified narrator in a fictional or nonfiction narrative, or to an unidentified voice that readers perceive recounting a fictional story | |
| 202286314 | Old English | the Anglo-Saxon language spoken from approximately 450 to 1150 A.D. in what is now Great Britain | |
| 202286315 | omniscient narrator | an all-knowing, usually third-person narrator | |
| 202286316 | onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds | |
| 202286317 | oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms | |
| 202286318 | pacing | the relative speed that combines two contradictory terms | |
| 202286319 | parable | a story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question | |
| 202286320 | paradox | a statement that seems contradictory but is actually true | |
| 202286321 | parody | a piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another; used for comic effect or ridicule | |
| 202286322 | pastoral | a work of literature dealing with rural life | |
| 202286323 | pedantic | narrowly academic instead of broad and humane; excessively petty and meticulous | |
| 202286324 | persona | the speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing | |
| 202286325 | personification | assigning human characteristics to inanimate objects | |
| 202286326 | plot | the interrelationship among the events in a story | |
| 202286327 | point of view | any of several possible vantage points; omniscient, limited to that of a single character, and limited to that of several characters | |
| 202286328 | prose | any discourse that is not poetry | |
| 202286329 | protagonist | chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward some goal | |
| 202286330 | proverb | a short pithy statement of a general truth, one that condenses common experience into memorable form | |
| 202286331 | pseudonym | a false name or alias used by writers | |
| 202286332 | pulp fiction | novels written for mass consumption, often emphasizing exciting and titillating plots | |
| 202286333 | pun | a humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings | |
| 202286334 | purpose | one's intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing | |
| 202286335 | realism | the depiction of people, things, and events as they really are without idealization or exaggeration for effect | |
| 202286336 | rhythm | the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up speech and writing | |
| 202286337 | romance | an extended narrative about improbable events and extraordinary people in exotic places | |
| 202286338 | round character | a character drawn with sufficient complexity to be able to surprise the reader without losing credibility | |
| 202286339 | sarcasm | a sharp, caustic attitude conveyed in words through jibes, taunts, or other remarks | |
| 202286340 | sardonic | cynical; dark | |
| 202286341 | satire | an ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it | |
| 202286342 | sentiment | a synonym for view of feeling; also a refined and tender emotion in literature | |
| 202286343 | setting | the background to a story | |
| 202286344 | simile | a figure of speech that uses like or as to compare two things | |
| 202286345 | soliloquy | character speaks alone on stage to give audience access to his or her thoughts | |
| 202286346 | speaker | a term used for the author or the person whose perspective (real or imagined) is being advanced in a speech or piece of writing | |
| 202286347 | stream of consciousness | a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind | |
| 202286348 | style | the distinctive quality of speech or writing created by the selection and arrangement of works and figures of speech | |
| 202286349 | stylistic devices | a general term referring to diction, syntax, tone, figurative language, and all other elements that contribute to the style or manner of a given piece of discourse | |
| 202286350 | subject | in rhetoric, the topic addressed in a piece of writing | |
| 202286351 | subjective | of or relating to private and personal feelings and attitudes as opposed to facts and reality | |
| 202286352 | subtext | the implied meaning that underlies the main meaning of an essay or other work | |
| 202286353 | symbol | An object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself | |
| 202286354 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part | |
| 202286355 | syntax | sentence structure | |
| 202286356 | synthesize | combining or bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex | |
| 202286357 | theme | the main thought expressed by a work; topic and more specific issue | |
| 202286358 | tone | the speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience | |
| 202286359 | tragedy | a form of literature in which the hero is destroyed by some character flaw and by a set of forces that cause the hero considerable anguish | |
| 202286360 | tragic flaw | tragic error in judgment; a mistaken act which changes the fortune of the tragic hero from happiness to misery; (also known as hamartia) | |
| 202286361 | understatement | lack of emphasis in a statement or point; restraint in language often used for ironic effect; opposite of exaggeration | |
| 202286362 | verisimilitude | similar to the truth; the quality of realism in a work that persuades readers that they are getting a vision of life as it is | |
| 232670092 | catastrophe | The action at the end of a tragedy that initiates the denouement or falling action of a play | |
| 232670093 | chorus | A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who comment on the action of a play without participation in it | |
| 232670094 | comedy | A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better; may be either romantic or satiric comedy. | |
| 232670095 | comic relief | The use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments; typically parallels the tragic action that the scenes interrupt | |
| 232670096 | complication | An intensification of the conflict in a story or play; builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work | |
| 232670097 | dialogue | The conversation of characters in a literary work | |
| 232670098 | dramatic monologue | A type of poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener | |
| 232670099 | dramatis personae | Latin for the characters or persons in a play | |
| 232670100 | exposition | The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided | |
| 232670101 | falling action | In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution | |
| 232670102 | flashback | An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action; used to complicate the sense of chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the experience of human time | |
| 232670103 | foot | A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables | |
| 232670104 | foreshadowing | Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story | |
| 232670105 | gesture | The physical movement of a character during a play; used to reveal character, and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body. | |
| 232670106 | iamb | An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one | |
| 232670107 | movement | a change in a character over the span of the play | |
| 232670108 | pathos | A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character; always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well | |
| 232670109 | props | Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. | |
| 232670110 | quatrain | A four-line stanza in a poem | |
| 232670111 | recognition | The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is | |
| 232670112 | reversal | The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist | |
| 232670113 | rising action | A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax | |
| 232670114 | subplot | A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot | |
| 232670115 | tragic hero | A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering | |
| 232670116 | unities | The idea that a play should be limited to a specific time, place, and story line |
