Terms : Hide Images
| 7065777849 | Abstract | An abstract term is a general term, referring to a broad concept, as opposed to a term that refers to a specific, particular thing; opposite of concrete | 0 | |
| 7065777850 | Allegory | A literary work that portrays abstract ideas concretely. Characters are frequently personifications of abstract ideas and are given names that refer to these ideas | 1 | |
| 7065777851 | Alliteration | The repetition of the same initial consonant sounds in a sequence of words or syllables | 2 | |
| 7065777852 | Allusion | A reference to another work of literature, or to art, history, or current events | 3 | |
| 7065777853 | Ambiguity | Deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event of situation that may be interpreted in more than one way | 4 | |
| 7065777854 | Analogy | A comparison between two things that helps explain or illustrate one or both of them; usually to show how they are alike | 5 | |
| 7065777855 | Anaphora | Repetition of an initial word or words to add emphasis | 6 | |
| 7065777856 | Antagonist | Character opposing the protagonist | 7 | |
| 7065777857 | Anthropomorphism | Attributing human characteristics to an animal (like personification) | 8 | |
| 7065777858 | Antihero | Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. May lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples | 9 | |
| 7065777859 | Antimetabole | Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order; called chiasmus in poetry | 10 | |
| 7065777860 | Aphorism | A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation of life or of a principle or of an accepted general truth | 11 | |
| 7065777861 | Apostrophe | A direct address to an abstraction (ex. Time), a thing (ex. Wind), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person | 12 | |
| 7065777862 | Archaic language | Words that were once common but that are no longer used | 13 | |
| 7065777863 | Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words | 14 | |
| 7065777864 | Atmosphere | The feeling created for the reader by a work of literature, generated typically by style, tone, and setting. Synonymous with mood. | 15 | |
| 7065777865 | Bildungsroman | A novel that explores the maturation of the protagonist, a coming-of-age story | 16 | |
| 7065777866 | Blank verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter, closest to natural patterns of speaking in English | 17 | |
| 7065777867 | Caesura | A pause within a line of poetry, sometimes punctuated, sometimes not, often mirroring natural speech | 18 | |
| 7065777868 | Characterization | The method by which the author builds, or reveals, a character. Can be direct or indirect. Remember the STEAL acronym. | 19 | |
| 7065777869 | Chiasmus | Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order; called antimetabole in prose | 20 | |
| 7065777870 | Colloquial language / Colloquialism | An expression or language construction appropriate only for casual, informal speaking or writing | 21 | |
| 7065777871 | Coming-of-age story (aka bildungsroman) | A novel that explores the maturation of the protagonist, a coming-of-age story | 22 | |
| 7065777872 | Concrete | A concrete term refers to a specific, particular thing, as opposed to a term that refers to a broad concept. Opposite of abstract | 23 | |
| 7065777873 | Conflict | The tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot. Can be external or internal. | 24 | |
| 7065777874 | Consonance | An instance in which identical final consonant sounds in nearby words follow different vowel sounds. | 25 | |
| 7065777875 | Couplet | See STANZA | 26 | |
| 7065777876 | Dactyl | Stressed unstressed unstressed set of syllables | 27 | |
| 7065777877 | Dialect | Dialogue or narration written to simulate regional or cultural speech patterns | 28 | |
| 7065777878 | Elegy | A contemplative poem, on death and mortaility, often written for someone who has died | 29 | |
| 7065777879 | End-stopped line | An end-stopped line of poetry concludes with punctuation that marks a pause. The line is completely meaningful in itself, unlike run-on lines, which require the reader to move to the next line to grasp the poet's complete thought. | 30 | |
| 7065777880 | Enjambment | A poetic technique in which one lines ends without a pause and must continue on to the next line to complete its meaning; also referred to as a "run-on line" | 31 | |
| 7065777881 | 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 | 32 | |
| 7065777882 | Epigram | A short, witty statement designed to surprise an audience or a reader. | 33 | |
| 7065777883 | Epigraph | A quotation preceding a work of literature that helps set the text's mood or suggests its themes. | 34 | |
| 7065777884 | Epiphany | A character's transformative moment of realization, what James Joyce calls the "sudden revelation of the whatness of a thing" | 35 | |
| 7065777885 | Epithet | An adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. | 36 | |
| 7065777886 | Eulogy | A poem, speech, or other work written in great praise of something or someone, usually a person no longer living | 37 | |
| 7065777887 | Farce | A type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations | 38 | |
| 7065777888 | Flashback | A scene in a narrative that is set in an earlier time than the main action | 39 | |
| 7065777889 | Foil | A contrasting character who allows the protagonist to stand out more distinctly. | 40 | |
| 7065777890 | Foreshadowing | A plot device in which future events are hinted at | 41 | |
| 7065777891 | Form | The defining structural characteristics of a work | 42 | |
| 7065777892 | Free verse | A form of poetry that does not have a regular rhythm or rhyme scheme | 43 | |
| 7065777893 | Hubris | An excessive level of pride that leads to the protagonist's downfall | 44 | |
| 7065777894 | Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point | 45 | |
| 7065777895 | Iamb | An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one | 46 | |
| 7065777896 | Iambic pentameter | A rhythmic meter containing five iambs. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse. | 47 | |
| 7065777897 | Imagery | A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds. The verbal expression of a sensory experience: visual (sight), auditory (sound), olfactory (scent), gustatory (taste), tactile (touch), or kinesthetic (movement/tension). Imagery may use literal or figurative language. | 48 | |
| 7065777898 | In media res | "in the middle of things"--a technique in which a narrative begins in the middle of the action | 49 | |
| 7065777899 | Inversion | Also called an inverted sentence or anastrophe, it is created by alteration of the standard English word order of a subject being followed by a verb and its object. Often used to call attention to something, perhaps to emphasize a point or an idea by placing it in the position of the subject, or to slow the pace by choosing an unusual order | 50 | |
| 7065777900 | Irony | A discrepancy between appearances and reality | 51 | |
| 7065777901 | Dramatic Irony | Tension created by the contrast between what a character says or thinks and what the audience or readers know to be true; as a result of this technique, some words and actions in a story or play take on a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters | 52 | |
| 7065777902 | Situational Irony | A pointed discrepancy or difference between what seems fitting or expected in a story and what actually happens | 53 | |
| 7065777903 | Verbal Irony | A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else, or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity. Sarcasm involves verbal irony used derisively | 54 | |
| 7065777904 | Juxtaposition | Placing two things side by side for the sake of comparison or contrast. | 55 | |
| 7065777905 | Litotes | Also called an understatement, a litote is the presentation or framing of something as less important, urgent, awful, good, powerful, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole, it is often used along with this technique, and for similar effect | 56 | |
| 7065777906 | 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 | 57 | |
| 7065777907 | Lyric | A short poem expressing the personal feelings of a first-person speaker | 58 | |
| 7065777908 | Metaphor | A figure of speech that compares two things | 59 | |
| 7065777909 | Implied metaphor | does not state explicitly the two terms of comparison | 60 | |
| 7065777910 | Extended Metaphor | a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it (called a conceit if it is very elaborate) | 61 | |
| 7065777911 | Dead metaphor | used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid | 62 | |
| 7065777912 | Mixed metaphor | a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms up so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible | 63 | |
| 7065777913 | Meter | The formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet. A foot is distinguished by the number of syllables it contains and how stress is placed on the syllables (stressed or unstressed) | 64 | |
| 7065777914 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to it (see also synecdoche) | 65 | |
| 7065777915 | Monologue | A speech given by one person (in a play) | 66 | |
| 7065777916 | Mood | An atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected | 67 | |
| 7065777917 | Motif | A recurring pattern of images, words, or symbols that reveals a theme in a work of literature | 68 | |
| 7065777918 | Narrative frame | Frame story | 69 | |
| 7065777919 | Narrator, objective | Objective narrator only recounts what characters say and do, offering no insight into their thinking or analysis of events. All interpretation is left to the reader. | 70 | |
| 7065777920 | Narrator, unreliable | A narrator who is biased and doesn't give a full or accurate picture of events in a narrative. Narrators may be unreliable because of youth, inexperience, madness, intentional or unintentional bias, or even lack of morals. Authors often use this technique to distinguish the character's point of view from their own. Sometimes an author will use an unreliable narrator to make an ironic point. | 71 | |
| 7065777921 | Ode | A form of poetry used to meditate on or address a single object or condition. It originally followed strict rules of rhythm, meter, and rhyme, which by the Romantic period had become more flexible | 72 | |
| 7065777922 | Onomatopoeia | Use of words that refer to sound and whose pronunciations mimic those sounds | 73 | |
| 7065777923 | Oxymoron | A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words | 74 | |
| 7065777924 | Parable | A tale told explicitly to illustrate a moral lesson or conclusion. Can take the form of drama, poetry, or fiction | 75 | |
| 7065777925 | Paradox | A statement that seems contradictory but actually is not | 76 | |
| 7065777926 | Parallel structure | Also known as parallelism, this term refers to the repeated use of similar grammatical structures for the purpose of emphasis. Compare with anaphora, too. | 77 | |
| 7065777927 | Parody | A comic or satiric imitation of a particular literary work or style. Parodies can be lighthearted to critical | 78 | |
| 7065777928 | Passive voice | A sentence uses passive voice when the subject doesn't act but is acted on | 79 | |
| 7065777929 | Pastoral | Literature that employs a romanticized description of leisurely farm or rural life | 80 | |
| 7065777930 | Persona | A voice and viewpoint that an author adopts in order to deliver a story or poem | 81 | |
| 7065777931 | Personification | A figure of speech in which an animal or an inanimate object is imbued with human qualities | 82 | |
| 7065777932 | Polysyndeton | A sentence that uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series. Instead of X, Y, and Z, a polysyndeton results in X and Y and Z | 83 | |
| 7065777933 | Point of view | The perspective from which a work is told. The most common narrative vantage points are first person (sometimes unreliable narrators), second person, third-person omniscient, and third-person limited | 84 | |
| 7065777934 | Prose poem | A blending of prose and poetry, usually resembling prose in its use of sentences wihtout line breaks, and poetry in its use of quintessentially poetic devices such as figurative language. | 85 | |
| 7065777935 | Pun | A play on words that derives its humor from the replacement of one word with another that has a similar pronunciation or spelling but a different meaning. A pun can also derive humor from the use of a single word that has more than one meaning. | 86 | |
| 7065777936 | Refrain | A line, lines, or a stanza in a poem that repeat(s) at intervals | 87 | |
| 7065777937 | Reversal | When, in a narrative, the protagonist's fortunes take an unforeseen turn. | 88 | |
| 7065777938 | Rhetorical question | A question asked for stylistic effect and emphasis to make a point rather than to solicit an answer | 89 | |
| 7065777939 | Rhyme | The repetition of the same (or similar) vowel or consonant sounds or constructions. | 90 | |
| 7065777940 | End Rhyme | a rhyme at the end of two or more lines of poetry | 91 | |
| 7065777941 | Internal Rhyme | a rhyme that occurs WITHIN a line of poetry | 92 | |
| 7065777942 | Near Rhyme | slant rhyme pairs sounds that are similar but not exactly the same | 93 | |
| 7065777943 | Eye Rhyme | a sight rhyme is a rhyme that only works because the words look the same | 94 | |
| 7065777944 | Rhyme scheme | A pattern that poetic rhyme follows | 95 | |
| 7065777945 | Rhythm | The general pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; see also meter | 96 | |
| 7065777946 | Sentence | A complex sentence contains an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses (beginning with words such as after, before, although, because, until, when, while, and if) | 97 | |
| 7065777947 | Compound Sentence | is when two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so) or a semicolon | 98 | |
| 7065777948 | Compound-Complex sentence | is when a compound sentence is combined with a complex sentence; it is often fairly long | 99 | |
| 7065777949 | Cumulative Sentence | is one in which an independent clause is followed by details, qualifications, or modifications in subordinate clauses or phrases | 100 | |
| 7065777950 | Imperative Sentence | issues a command. The subject of an imperative sentence is often implied rather than explicit. | 101 | |
| 7065777951 | Interrupted Sentence | a sentence of any pattern is modified by interruptions that add descriptive details, state conditions, suggest uncertainty, voice possible alternative views, or present qualifications. | 102 | |
| 7065777952 | Periodic Sentence | begin with details, qualifications, or modifications, building toward the main clause. | 103 | |
| 7065777953 | Simple Sentence | are composed of one main clause without any subordinate clauses. | 104 | |
| 7065777954 | Simile | A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by cmoparing it explicitly to something else, using the words like, as, or as though to do so | 105 | |
| 7065777955 | Soliloquy | In a play, a monologue in which a character, alone on the stage, reveals his or her thoughts or emotions | 106 | |
| 7065777956 | Sonnet | A poetic form composed of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter that adheres to a particular rhyme scheme. The two most common types are listed below. | 107 | |
| 7065777957 | Petrarchan Sonnet | Also known as the Italian sonnet, its fourteen lines are divided into an octave and a sestet. The octave rhymes abba, abba; the sestet that follows can have a variety of different rhyme schemes: cdcdcd, cdecde, cddcdd | 108 | |
| 7065777958 | Shakespearean Sonnet | Also known as the English sonnet, its fourteen lines are composed of three quatrains and a couplet, and its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. | 109 | |
| 7065777959 | Sprung rhythm | A type of meter in which the number of stressed syllables in each line is the same, while the number of unstressed syllables can vary. This means that the types of feet employed in each line can vary. | 110 | |
| 7065777960 | Stanza | Lines in a poem that the poet has chosen to group together, usually separated from other lines by a space. Stanzas within a poem usually have repetitive forms, often sharing rhyme schemes or rhythmic structures. | 111 | |
| 7065777961 | Couplet | a two-line, rhyming stanza | 112 | |
| 7065777962 | Tercet | a three-line stanza | 113 | |
| 7065777963 | Quatrain | a four-line stanza | 114 | |
| 7065777964 | Sestet | a six-line stanza | 115 | |
| 7065777965 | Octet | an eight-line stanza | 116 | |
| 7065777966 | Stream of consciousness | A technique in which prose follows the logic and flow of a character's (or multiple characters') thought processes—associations, tangents, seemingly strange transitions—rather than a more ordered narrative. | 117 | |
| 7065777967 | Structure | The organization of a work | 118 | |
| 7065777968 | Style | The way a literary work is written. Style is produced by an author's choices in diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, and other literary elements. | 119 | |
| 7065777969 | Symbol | A setting, object, or event in a story that carries more than literal meaning and therefore represents something significant to undersatnding the meaning of a work of literature. | 120 | |
| 7065777970 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole. Compare to metonymy. | 121 | |
| 7065777971 | Syntax | The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences in a prose passage. | 122 | |
| 7065777972 | Tone | A speaker's attitude as exposed through stylistic choices. Tone is often confused with mood, which is the feeling created by the work. Tone and mood provide the emotional coloring of a work and is created by some combination of other elements of style. | 123 | |
| 7065777973 | Tragic hero | A character who possesses a flaw or commits an error in judgment that leads to his or her downfall and a reversal of fortune. | 124 | |
| 7065777974 | Understatement (litote) | The presentation or framing of something as less important, urgent, awful, good, powerful, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole, it is often used along with this technique, and for similar effect | 125 | |
| 7065777975 | Verse | A broad term, verse refers to a piece of writing that is metered and rhythmic. Free verse is an exception to this, being a piece of writing grouped with verse rather than prose, even though it lacks a meter. Verse can also be used to refer to poetry in general. | 126 | |
| 7065777976 | Villanelle | A form of poetry in which five tercets (rhyme scheme aba) are followed by a quatrain (rhyme scheme abaa). Much of the power of this form lies in its repeated lines and their subtly shifting sense or meaning over the course of the poem. | 127 | |
| 7065777977 | Wordplay | Techniques by which writers manipulate language for effect; examples include puns (the deliberate misuse of words that sound alike) or double entendres (expressions with two meanings) | 128 | |
| 7065777978 | Zeugma | A technique in which one verb is used with multiple (and often incongruous) objects, so that the definition of the verb is changed, complicated, or made both literal and figurative. | 129 |
