Terms : Hide Images
| 37669184 | Abstract | Not related to the concrete properties of an object; pertaining to ideas, concepts, or qualities, as opposed to physical attributes. | 0 | |
| 37669185 | Anachronism | Use of historically inaccurate details in a text; for example, depicting a 19th century character using a computer. | 1 | |
| 37669186 | Antihero | Protagonist of a literary work who does not embody the traditional qualities of a hero (e.g. honor, bravery, kindness). | 2 | |
| 37669187 | Appeals to emotion | Rhetorical arguments in which the speaker attempts to affect the listener's personal feelings. | 3 | |
| 37669188 | Audience | The person(s) reached by a piece of writing. | 4 | |
| 37669189 | Chiasmus | Figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversed in the second. (eg "Fair is foul, and foul is fair.") | 5 | |
| 37669190 | Contradiction | A direct opposition between things compared; inconsistency. | 6 | |
| 37669191 | Devices | A particular word pattern or combination of words used in a literary work to evoke a desired effect or arouse a desired reaction in the reader. | 7 | |
| 37669192 | Dystopia | An imaginary place where people live dehumanized, often fearful lives. | 8 | |
| 37669193 | Epitaph | A piece of writing in praise of deceased person. | 9 | |
| 37669194 | Exposition | The explanation or analysis of a subject; presenting the meaning or purpose of an issue. | 10 | |
| 37669195 | Foreshadow | To hint at or present things to come in a story or play. | 11 | |
| 37669196 | Inference | The process of arriving at a conclusion from a hint, implication, or suggestion. | 12 | |
| 37669197 | Literal | The strict meaning of a word or words: not figurative or exaggerated. | 13 | |
| 37669198 | Narrative | A form of writing that tells a story. | 14 | |
| 37669199 | Overstatement | Exaggerated language. | 15 | |
| 37669200 | Personification | Treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by giving it human qualities. | 16 | |
| 37669201 | Realism | The literary practice of attempting to describe life and nature without idealization and with attention to detail. | 17 | |
| 37669202 | Sarcasm | A sharp caustic remark. A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually bitterly or harshly critical. For example, a coach saying to a player who misses the ball, "Nice catch". | 18 | |
| 37669203 | Symbolism | A person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates itself and at the same time figuratively represents something else. The use of one object to suggest another hidden, object or idea. | 19 | |
| 37669204 | Transition | Words and devices that bring unity and coherence to a piece of writing. Examples: however, in addition, and on the other hand. | 20 | |
| 37669205 | Zeugma | Grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. the linking show a relationship between ideas more clearly. For example: Bob exceeded at sports; Jim at academics; Mark at eating. OR "You held your breath and the door for me." | 21 | |
| 37669206 | Aesthetic | Pertaining to the value of art for its own sake or for form; pertaining to the critical reflection on art, nature, culture, or beauty. | 22 | |
| 37669207 | Anadiplosis | Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. | 23 | |
| 37669209 | Appeals to logic | Rhetorical arguments in which the speaker attempts to persuade the listener through use of deductive reasoning. | 24 | |
| 37669210 | Begging the question | To sidestep or evade the real problem. | 25 | |
| 37669211 | Claim | An assertion of something as fact; to demand as a right or as due; a statement that you want your audience to believe. | 26 | |
| 37669212 | Convention | An accepted manner, model, or tradition; a common way of looking at or examining something. | 27 | |
| 37669213 | Diction | An author's choice of words to convey a tone or effect. | 28 | |
| 37669214 | Elegy | Poem or prose lamenting the death of a particular person. | 29 | |
| 37669215 | Ethos | In dramatic literature, the moral element that determines a charcter's actions, rather than thought or emotion. | 30 | |
| 37669216 | Eulogy | A speech or writing in praise of a person or thing; an oration in honor of a deceased person, typically given at a funeral or memorial. | 31 | |
| 37669217 | Genre | Term used to describe literary forms, such as tragedy, comedy, novel or essay; a loose set of criteria that groups together types of writing/composition | 32 | |
| 37669218 | Invective | The use of angry and insulting language in satirical writing. | 33 | |
| 37669219 | Litote | Form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve. (eg Saying "You're not terrible" to express that you did a wonderful job) | 34 | |
| 37669220 | Narrative device | Use of techniques such as flashbacks and/or digression in the telling of a story. | 35 | |
| 37669221 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, as in "jumbo shrimp" or "deafening silence". | 36 | |
| 37669222 | Perspective | A character's view of the situation or events in the story. | 37 | |
| 37669223 | Reflective | A piece of writing that gives considered thought to something. | 38 | |
| 37669224 | Satire | A literary style used to make fun of or ridicule an idea or human vice or weakness, often for the sake of changing society for the better. | 39 | |
| 37669225 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole, such as "head of cattle" or "hands on deck". | 40 | |
| 37669226 | Trope | The use of a word in a figurative sense with a decided change or extension in its literal meaning; a shift in the typical meaning of a word (eg "I put down my weapon of choice at the end of my test--a dull #2 lead pencil") | 41 | |
| 37669227 | Allegory | Narrative form in which characters and actions have meaning outside themselves; characters are usually personifications of abstract qualities. | 42 | |
| 37669228 | Analogy | Comparison of two things that are alike in some respects. | 43 | |
| 37669229 | Aphorism | A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief. "Early to bed and early to rise/Make a man health, wealthy, and wise." | 44 | |
| 37669230 | Anecdote | A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature. | 45 | |
| 37669231 | Bildungsroman | A novel or story whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character. | 46 | |
| 37669232 | Closure | Bringing to an end or conclusion. | 47 | |
| 37669233 | Deductive | The reasoning process by which a conclusion is drawn form set of premises and contains no more facts than these premises. | 48 | |
| 37669234 | Didactic | Intended for teaching or to teach a moral lesson. | 49 | |
| 37669235 | Epigraph | Quote set at the beginning of a literary work or at its divisions to set the tone or suggest a theme. | 50 | |
| 37669236 | Euphemism | Substitution of a milder or less direct expression for one that is harsh or blunt. e.g. using "passed away" for "dead". | 51 | |
| 37669237 | Flashback | Retrospection, where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronolgy of a narrative. | 52 | |
| 37669238 | Hamartia | Aristotle's term for the main character's tragic flaw or error in judgement. | 53 | |
| 37669239 | In medias res | Refers to opening a story in the middle of the action, requiring filling in past details by exposition or flashback. | 54 | |
| 37669240 | Metaphor | The implicit comparison or identification of one thing with another unlike itself without the use of a verbal signal such as like or as. One thing is pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy between them. | 55 | |
| 37669241 | Narrator | The "character" who "tells" the story. | 56 | |
| 37669242 | Paradox | A statement that seems contradictory, but is actually true. | 57 | |
| 37669243 | Point of view | The view the reader gets of the action and characters in a story. | 58 | |
| 37669244 | Repetition | Repeating or repeated action. | 59 | |
| 37669245 | Setting | The time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play. | 60 | |
| 37669246 | Syntax | The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is sentence structure and how it influences the way a reader perceives a piece of writing. | 61 | |
| 37669247 | Understatement | Deliberate expression of an idea or event as less important than it actually is or was. | 62 | |
| 37669248 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds or any vowel sounds within a formal grouping, such as a poetic line or stanza, or in close proximity in prose. | 63 | |
| 37669249 | Analytical writing | A style of writing in which the subject is broken into its components and the components are subjected to detailed scrutiny. | 64 | |
| 37669250 | Apology | A formal written defense of something you believe in strongly | 65 | |
| 37669251 | Assonance | The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words. | 66 | |
| 37669252 | Canon | The works of an author that have been accepted as authentic. | 67 | |
| 37669253 | Colloquial | Ordinary language; the vernacular. For example, depending on where in the United States you live, a sandwich is called a sub, a grinder, or a hero. | 68 | |
| 37669254 | Delayed sentence | A sentence that withholds its main idea until the end. For example: Just as he bent to tie his shoe, a car hit him. | 69 | |
| 37669255 | Digression | Movement away from the main story or theme of a piece of writing. | 70 | |
| 37669256 | Epiphany | A sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the realtiy or essential meaning of something usually brought on by a simple or common occurrence or experience. | 71 | |
| 37669257 | Evidence | An indication or a sign. | 72 | |
| 37669258 | Foil | A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast. | 73 | |
| 37669259 | Hyperbole | An overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. | 74 | |
| 37669260 | Irony | A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. | 75 | |
| 37669261 | Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to name or designate something, as in, "The White House announced today...". | 76 | |
| 37669262 | Nostalgia | Desire to return in thought or fact to a former time. | 77 | |
| 37669263 | Parallelism | Recurrent syntactical similarity where several parts of a sentence or several sentences equal in importance. e.g. "I have always searched for, but never found the perfect painting for that wall". | 78 | |
| 37669264 | Propaganda | Information or rumor deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, or institution. | 79 | |
| 37669265 | Retrospection | Looking back on things past. | 80 | |
| 37669266 | Simile | A direct comparison of one thing to another, usually using the words like or as to draw the connection. | 81 | |
| 37669267 | Theme | The central or dominant idea or concern of a work; the main idea or meaning. | 82 | |
| 37669268 | Utopia | An imaginary place of ideal perfection. | 83 | |
| 37669269 | Allusion | A figure of speech which makes brief, even casual reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object to create a resonance in the reader or to apply a symbolic meaning to the character or object of which the allusion consists. | 84 | |
| 37669270 | Anaphora | The regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. "We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight in the sky." | 85 | |
| 37669271 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech in which a person, thing, or abstract policy is addressed as if present; for example, the invocation to the muses usually found in epic poetry. In dramatic works and poetry, it is often introduced by the word "O" (eg "Where, O death, thy sting? where, O death, thy victory?" or "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" or "Death, be not proud") | 86 | |
| 37669272 | Asyndeton | The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effect and suggests the list may be incomplete. "He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing." or "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." | 87 | |
| 37669273 | Carpe diem | "Seize the day"; the philosophy that one should enjoy life to the fullest. | 88 | |
| 37669274 | Connotation | What is implied by a word. For example, the words sweet, gay, and awesome have feelings/associations that are quite different from their actual definitions. | 89 | |
| 37669275 | Denotation | The dictionary definition of a word; the direct and specific meaning. | 90 | |
| 37669276 | Discourse | A formal discussion of a subject. | 91 | |
| 37669277 | Epistrophe | The repetition of a word or words as the end of two or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences. (eg "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.") | 92 | |
| 37669278 | Expletive | A single word or short phrase intended to emphasize surrounding words. Commonly separated by commas; e.g in fact, of course, after all, certainly. | 93 | |
| 37669279 | Imagery | Sensory details in a work; the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, call to mind an idea, or describe an object. Involves the senses. | 94 | |
| 37669280 | Isocolon | Parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure, but also in length. e.g. "An envious heart makes a treacherous ear" or "Many will enter. Few will win". | 95 | |
| 37669281 | Mood | The feeling or ambience resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and pint of view. The effect is created through descriptions of feelings or objects that establish a particular feeling such as gloom, fear, or hope. | 96 | |
| 37669282 | Onomatopoeia | A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes, such as buzz or hiss. | 97 | |
| 37669283 | Parody | A satirical imitation of a work of art for purpose of ridiculing its style or subject. | 98 | |
| 37669284 | Prose | The ordinary of form of written language without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse. | 99 | |
| 37669285 | Rhetoric | The language of a work and its style; the art of using language effectively | 100 | |
| 37669286 | Ambiguity | Use of language in which multiple meanings are possible. | 101 | |
| 37669287 | Antagonist | Character or force in a literary work that opposes the main character. | 102 | |
| 37669288 | Appeals to authority | Rhetorical arguments in which the speaker claims to be an expert or relies on information provided by experts. | 103 | |
| 37669289 | Antithesis | The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words of phrases. | 104 | |
| 37669290 | Catharsis | Purification or cleansing of the spirit through the emotions of pity and terror as a witness to a tragedy. | 105 | |
| 37669291 | Consonance | The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels, such as pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack. | 106 | |
| 37669292 | Deus ex machina | As in Greek theater, uses of an artificial device or contrived solution to solve a difficult situation, usually introduced suddenly and unexpectedly. | 107 | |
| 37669293 | Doppelganger | Ghostly counterpart of a living person or an alter ego. | 108 | |
| 37669294 | Epistolary | A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters. | 109 | |
| 37669295 | Explication | The interpretation or analysis of a text. | 110 | |
| 37669296 | Formal | Language that is lofty, dignified, or impersonal | 111 | |
| 37669297 | Inductive | Conclusion or type of reasoning whereby observation or information about a part of a class is applied to the class as a whole. | 112 | |
| 37669298 | Juxtaposition | Placing of two items side by side to create a certain effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some other purpose. | 113 | |
| 37669299 | Motif | Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event. | 114 | |
| 37669300 | Opening | The first part or beginning of a piece or writing. | 115 | |
| 37669301 | Persona | The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share of the values of the actual author. | 116 | |
| 37669302 | Protagonist | The chief character in a work of literature. | 117 | |
| 37669303 | Rhetorical | device Particular use of word patterns and styles used to clarify, make associations, and focus the writing in a piece of literature. | 118 | |
| 37669304 | Syllogism | A form of deduction. An extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argument. | 119 | |
| 37669305 | Tone | The attitude a literary work takes towards its subject and theme. It reflects the narrator's attitude. | 120 | |
| 37669306 | Wit | Quickness of intellect and talent for saying brilliant things that surprise and delight by their unexpectedness. | 121 | |
| 37669307 | Speaker | The person(not necessarily the author) who is the voice of the poem or story. | 122 | |
| 37669308 | Thesis | statement Focus statement of an essay; premise statement upon which the point of view or discussion in the essay is based. | 123 | |
| 37669309 | Voice | The acknowledged or unacknowledged source of words of the story; the speaker, a "person" telling the story or poem. | 124 | |
| 81101767 | Cumulative Sentences | Begins with a standard sentence pattern and adds multiple details AFTER it. The details can take the form of subordinate clauses or different kinds or phrases | 125 | |
| 81101768 | Periodic Sentences | A sentence that BEGINS with multiple details and holds off a standard sentence pattern- or at least its predicate- until the end. | 126 | |
| 81101769 | Inverted Syntax | The typical English sentence pattern has the subject before the verb. In this type of sentence, the verb is placed before the subject. | 127 | |
| 81343026 | cacophony | The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition, as for poetic effect | 128 | |
| 81343027 | euphony | A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds | 129 | |
| 81343028 | pun | a play on words | 130 | |
| 99884304 | informal | Language, often including colloquialisms, that is similar to everyday speech | 131 |
