Terms : Hide Images
| 4318961990 | allegory | a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface, often relating each literal term to a fixed, corresponding abstract idea or moral principle; usually, the ulterior meanings belong to a pre-existing system of ideas or principles | 0 | |
| 4318975202 | alliteration | the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words | 1 | |
| 4318981053 | allusion | a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history | 2 | |
| 4318990807 | anachronism | an error of chronology or timeline in a literary piece; anything that is out of time and out of place | 3 | |
| 4318993206 | analogy | a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it; it aims at explaining that idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar | 4 | |
| 4319001852 | antagonist | any force in a story or play that is in conflict with the protagonist; an antagonist may be another person, an aspect of the physical or social environment, or a destructive element in the protagonist's own nature | 5 | |
| 4319011144 | antihero | a main character in a story who lacks the typical heroic qualities of bravery, courage, morality, and the special ability and desire to achieve for the greater good; still the protagonist of the narrative, yet is a foil to the traditional hero archetype | 6 | |
| 4319024829 | apostrophe | a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply | 7 | |
| 4319031344 | approximate rhyme | a term used for words in a rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rhymes | 8 | |
| 4319464046 | archetype | a reoccurring symbol or motif throughout literature that represents universal patterns of human nature; it can also refer to the original model on which all other things of the same kind are based | 9 | |
| 4319467656 | assonance | the repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words | 10 | |
| 4319473347 | ballad | a fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form | 11 | |
| 4319476210 | cliché | a saying, idea, or element of artistic work that is overused in a culture to the point of losing its original, more significant, meaning | 12 | |
| 4319487102 | climax | the turning point or high point in a plot | 13 | |
| 4319491887 | colloquialism | the usage of informal or everyday language in literature; generally geographic in nature, in that a colloquial expression often belongs to a regional or local dialect; they can be words, phrases, or aphorisms | 14 | |
| 4319503418 | connotation | what a word suggests beyond its basic dictionary definition; a word's overtones of meaning | 15 | |
| 4319507634 | couplet | two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme | 16 | |
| 4319510437 | denotation | the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word | 17 | |
| 4319515154 | deus ex machina | the resolution of a plot by use of a high improbable chance or coincidence | 18 | |
| 4319522179 | dialect | the variety of a language that a group of people speak, separated either by geography, class, or ethnicity | 19 | |
| 4319527752 | diction | the choice of words and style of expression that an author makes and uses in a work of literature | 20 | |
| 4319532057 | didactic writing | poetry, fiction, or drama having as a primary purpose to teach or preach | 21 | |
| 4319536343 | direct characterization | that method of characterization in which the author, by exposition or analysis, tells us directly what a character is like, or has someone in the story do so | 22 | |
| 4319547237 | dramatic irony | an incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true | 23 | |
| 4319561149 | dynamic character | a character who during the course of a work undergoes a permanent change in some distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are summed up in one or two traits | 24 | |
| 4319571751 | elegy (elegiac) | a mournful poem, usually written in remembrance of a lost one for a funeral or as a lament; it tells the traffic story of an individual, or an individual's loss, rather than the collective story of a people, which can be found in epic poetry | 25 | |
| 4319579591 | en media res (in media res) | the practice of beginning an epic or other narrative by plunging into a crucial situation that is part of a related chain of events; the situation is an extension of previous events and will be developed in later action | 26 | |
| 4319592025 | end rhyme | rhymes that occur at the ends of lines | 27 | |
| 4319594235 | English/Elizabethan sonnet | a sonnet rhyming ababcdcdefefgg; its content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet | 28 | |
| 4319604788 | epic | a long narrative poem written in elevated style, in which heroes of great historical or legendary importance perform valorous deeds | 29 | |
| 4319613562 | epigraph | a short quotation that is set at the beginning of a text or section of a text to suggest the theme of what's to come; can be a quote from a famous person, an excerpt or full text of a poem, phrase, lyric, or definition | 30 | |
| 4319620511 | epistle | a composition in prose or poetry written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group | 31 | |
| 4319626673 | exposition | a form of writing that explains what's happening or has happened in the story in a very matter-of-fact way | 32 | |
| 4319630231 | external conflict | struggle between a literary or dramatic character and an outside force such as nature or another character, which drives the dramatic action of the plot | 33 | |
| 4319639153 | figurative language | language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally | 34 | |
| 4319650040 | first person point of view | the story is told by one of its characters, using the first person | 35 | |
| 4319655092 | flashback | an occurrence in which a character remembers an earlier event that happened before the current point of the story | 36 | |
| 4319668709 | flat character | a character whose distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are summed up in one or two traits | 37 | |
| 4319679021 | foil character | a minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character, and thus by contrast sets off or illuminates the major character; most often the contrast is complimentary to the major character | 38 | |
| 4319690649 | foot | the basic unit in the scansion or measurement of verse; usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables | 39 | |
| 4319698719 | foreshadowing | a literary device in which the author gives clues about events that will happen later in the story; often these clues are fairly subtle so that they can only be noticed or fully understood upon a second reading | 40 | |
| 4319703226 | free verse | non metrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, and in which pauses, line breaks, and formal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than that established poetic forms | 41 | |
| 4319712731 | hubris | an extreme expression of pride or self-confidence in a character | 42 | |
| 4319716561 | hyperbole | a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth | 43 | |
| 4319722717 | iambic pentameter | a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable | 44 | |
| 4319734695 | imagery | the representation through language of sense experience | 45 | |
| 4319740588 | indirect characterization | that method of characterization in which the author shows us a character in action, compelling us to infer what the character is like from what is said or done by the character | 46 | |
| 4319747924 | internal conflict | psychological struggle within the mind of a literary or dramatic character, the resolution of which creates the plot's suspense | 47 | |
| 4319761835 | internal rhyme | a rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme-words occurs within the line | 48 | |
| 4321093118 | irony | a situation or a use of language involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy | 49 | |
| 4319766349 | Italian/Petrarchan sonnet | a sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abbaabba and a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde | 50 | |
| 4319776276 | juxtaposition | to place two concepts, characters, ideas, or places near or next to each other so that the reader will compare and contrast them | 51 | |
| 4319781107 | lyric poem | a type of emotional songlike poetry, distinguished from dramatic and narrative poetry; they have a musical rhythm, and their topics often explore romantic feelings or other strong emotions | 52 | |
| 4319790500 | metaphor | a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike | 53 | |
| 4319797905 | meter | the regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry | 54 | |
| 4319805450 | metonymy | a figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience | 55 | |
| 4319811314 | mood | the emotional feeling or atmosphere that a work of literature produces in a reader | 56 | |
| 4319814470 | motif | a narrative element with symbolic meaning that repeats throughout a work of literature; may come in the form of reoccurring imagery, language, structure, or contrasts | 57 | |
| 4319818957 | motivation | the incentives or goals that, in combination with the inherent natures of characters, cause them to behave as they do | 58 | |
| 4319825770 | objective point of view | the author tells the story using the third person, but is limited to reporting what the characters say or do; the author does not interpret their behavior or tells us their private thoughts or feelings | 59 | |
| 4319837778 | omniscient point of view | the author tells the story using the third person, know all and free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do | 60 | |
| 4319846268 | onomatopoeia | the use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound | 61 | |
| 4319849346 | paradox | a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements | 62 | |
| 4319857447 | parallel structure | the usage of repeating words and forms to give pattern and rhythm to a passage in literature; using the same pattern of words to show that two or more words or ideas are of equal importance and to help the reader comprehend what is being written | 63 | |
| 4319868017 | parody | an imitation of a writer, artist, subject, or genre in such a way as to make fun of or comment on the original work | 64 | |
| 4319871285 | personification | a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept | 65 | |
| 4321079671 | plot | the sequence of incidents or events of which a story or play is composed | 66 | |
| 4321084757 | point of view | the angle of vision from which a story is told | 67 | |
| 4319876513 | protagonist | the central character in a story or play | 68 | |
| 4319880503 | pun | a play on words which usually hinges on a word with more than one meaning or the substitution of a homonym that changes the meaning of the sentence for humorous or rhetorical effect | 69 | |
| 4319883425 | quatrain | (1) a four-line stanza (2) a four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme | 70 | |
| 4319889531 | refrain | a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanzaic form | 71 | |
| 4319900130 | resolution (denouement) | that portion of a plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts or the solution of its mysteries | 72 | |
| 4319904994 | rising action | that development of plot in a story or play that precedes and leads up to the climax | 73 | |
| 4321064461 | rhyme | the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly positioned words | 74 | |
| 4319919213 | rhythm | any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound | 75 | |
| 4319912248 | round character | a character whose distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are complex and many-sided | 76 | |
| 4319928716 | satire | a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice | 77 | |
| 4319935725 | setting | the context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs | 78 | |
| 4319940684 | simile | a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike; the comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as: like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems | 79 | |
| 4319953307 | situational irony | a situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate | 80 | |
| 4319964086 | stanza | a group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well) is repeated throughout a poem | 81 | |
| 4319969743 | static character | a character who is the same sort of person at the end of the work as at the beginning | 82 | |
| 4319978729 | stock character | a stereotyped character; one whose nature is familiar to us from prototypes in previous literature | 83 | |
| 4319983884 | stream of consciousness | narrative that presents the private thoughts of a character without commentary or interpretation by the author | 84 | |
| 4319993654 | style | comprises many literary devices that an author employs to create a distinct feel for a work; these devices include, but are not limited to, point of view, symbolism, tone, imagery, diction, voice, syntax, and the method of narration | 85 | |
| 4320000203 | suspense | that quality in a story or play that makes the reader eager to discover what happens next and how it will end | 86 | |
| 4320005708 | symbol | something that means more than what it is; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well | 87 | |
| 4320013096 | syntax | the arrangement of words into a sentence that make sense in a given language | 88 | |
| 4320017502 | theme | the central idea or unifying generalization implied or stated by a literary work | 89 | |
| 4320022234 | third person limited point of view | the author tells the story using the third person, but is limited to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what that one character thinks, feels, sees, or hears | 90 | |
| 4320034829 | tone | the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject, the audience, or herself or himself; the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work | 91 | |
| 4320044002 | understatement | a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants | 92 | |
| 4320051392 | verbal irony | a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant | 93 | |
| 4320056232 | vernacular | using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language | 94 | |
| 4320059841 | villanelle | a nineteen-line fixed form consisting of five tercets rhymed aba and a concluding quatrain rhymed abaa, with lines 1 and 3 of the first tercet serving as refrains in an alternating pattern through line 15 and then repeated as lines 18 and 19 | 95 |
