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| 5268054594 | Allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some, for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom. The meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human experience. | 0 | |
| 5268093823 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words ("she sells sea shells"). Although the term is not frequently in the multiple choice section, you can look for it in any essay passage. The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, or echo the sense of the passage. | 1 | |
| 5268169518 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumable commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. It can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. There are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of this device. | 2 | |
| 5268178055 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 3 | |
| 5268183131 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. It can explain something unfamiliar by associating int with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. They can also make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually engaging. | 4 | |
| 5268203899 | Antithesis | The opposition or contrast of ideas; the direct opposite. | 5 | |
| 5268229297 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. | 6 | |
| 5268235169 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. | 7 | |
| 5268242617 | Atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described. even such elements as a description of the weather can contribute to this. Frequently it foreshadows events or create a mood. | 8 | |
| 5268259738 | Caricature | A verbal description, the purpose of which is to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person's distinctive physical features or other characteristics. | 9 | |
| 5268265121 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. | 10 | |
| 5268267119 | Colloquial/Colloquialism | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing. This gives a work a conversational, familiar tone and includes local and regional dialects. | 11 | |
| 5268275231 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects that displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made. | 12 | |
| 5268323776 | Connotation | The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning that may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. | 13 | |
| 5268328435 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 14 | |
| 5268331710 | Diction | Related to style, this element refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. this element, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices, etc., creates an author's style. | 15 | |
| 5268338642 | Didactic | From Greek origin, this literally means "teaching." These words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral/ethical principles. | 16 | |
| 5268346742 | Euphemism | From the Greek for "good speech," these are a more aggreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept that may be used to adhere to standards of social or political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement. | 17 | |
| 5268354677 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 18 | |
| 5268366515 | Figurative Language | Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. | 19 | |
| 5268368909 | Figure of Speech | A device used to produced figurative language often to compare dissimilar things. These devices include apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement. | 20 | |
| 5268377587 | Generic Conventions | This term describes traditions that help to define each genre such as to differentiate an essay and journalistic writing or an autobiography and political writing. | 21 | |
| 5268405636 | Genre | The major category into which a literary work best fits within the major divisions of literature. Prose, fiction, novels, short stories, nonfiction, essays, biographies, autobiographies, poetry, lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic, drama, tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce, etc. | 22 | |
| 5268428953 | Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. | 23 | |
| 5268432933 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. (The literal Greek meaning is "overshoot.") It often has a comic effect; however, a series effect is also possible. Often, it produces irony. the opposite of this term is understatement. | 24 | |
| 5268453434 | Imagery | The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions using physical terms related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. | 25 | |
| 5268475330 | Inference/Infer | To draw the most direct, plausible and reasonable conclusion from the information presented. | 26 | |
| 5268478952 | Invective | An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. | 27 | |
| 5268482174 | Irony: Verbal | When the words literally state the opposite of the writer's (or speaker's) meaning. | 28 | |
| 5268488581 | Irony: Situational | When events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen. | 29 | |
| 5268492364 | Irony: Dramatic | When facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work. | 30 | |
| 5268506567 | Litotes | A form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. It is the opposite of hyperbole. | 31 | |
| 5268531217 | Metaphor | A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similiarity. | 32 | |
| 5268656361 | Metonymy | A term from the Greek meaning of "changed label" or "substitute name." It is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. | 33 | |
| 5268661917 | Mood | The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect it--similar to tone and atmosphere. | 34 | |
| 5268669342 | Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. | 35 | |
| 5268709947 | Onomatopoeia | A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss hum, crack, and murmur. | 36 | |
| 5268714308 | Oxymoron | From the Greek for "pointedly foolish," it is a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory term sot suggest a paradox: "jumbo shrimp" and "cruel kindness." | 37 | |
| 5268722777 | Paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. | 38 | |
| 5268728479 | Parallelism | It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. This can involve, but is not limited to, repetition of a grammatical element such as a preposition or verbal phrase and can act as an organizing force to attract the reader's attention, add emphasis and organization, or simply provide a musical rhythm. | 39 | |
| 5268739885 | Anaphora | A sub-type of parallelism when the exact repetition of words or phrases at eh beginning of successive lines or sentences. | 40 | |
| 5268747638 | Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. It exploits peculiarities of an author's expression (propensity to use too many parentheses, certain favorite words, etc.). It can offer enlightenment about the original text, bu if it is poorly written, it is merely imitation. | 41 | |
| 5268761587 | Pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish (language that might be described as "show-off"; using big words for the sake of using big words). | 42 | |
| 5268770892 | Personification | A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. | 43 | |
| 5268785306 | Narration: First Person | Tells the story with the first person pronoun "I," and is a character in the story. this narrator can be the protagonist, a secondary character, or an observing character. | 44 | |
| 5268790102 | Narration: Third Person | Relates the events with the third person pronouns "he," "she," and "it." | 45 | |
| 5268800733 | Narration: Third Person Omniscient | A point of view in which the narrator, with godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters. | 46 | |
| 5268809303 | Narration: Third Person Limited | A point of view in which the narrator presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all the remaining characters. | 47 | |
| 5268816493 | Prose | One of the major divisions of genre, it refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms where the printer determines the length of the line; in contrast, the poet determines the length of the line in poetry. | 48 | |
| 5268825599 | Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as sound, word phrase, sentence, or grammatical pattern. | 49 | |
| 5268831371 | Rhetoric | From the Greek for "orator," this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. | 50 | |
| 5268838408 | Rhetorical Mode: Exposition | The purpose is to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion. | 51 | |
| 5268842835 | Rhetorical Mode: Argumentation | The purpose is to prove the validity of an idea or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning, discussion, and argument that thoroughly convinces the reader. | 52 | |
| 5268862998 | Rhetorical Mode: Persuasive | This writing is a type of argumentation having an additional aim of urging some action. | 53 | |
| 5268870969 | Rhetorical Mode: Description | The purpose is to recreate, invent, or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that event being described--often engages all five senses and may be straightforward and objective or highly emotional and subjective. | 54 | |
| 5268880428 | Rhetorical Mode: Narration | The purpose is to tell a story or narrate an event or series of events. this writing mode frequently uses the tools of descriptive writing. | 55 | |
| 5268884507 | Sarcasm | From the Greek meaning "to tear flesh," it involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. | 56 | |
| 5268888897 | Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule. | 57 | |
| 5268892884 | Semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. | 58 | |
| 5268900261 | Style | (1) An evaluation of the sum of the choice an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. (2) Classification of authors to show how the author reflects and helps to define a historical period. | 59 | |
| 5268906828 | Syllogism | From the Greek for "reckoning together," this is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises ("major" and "minor") that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. | 60 | |
| 5268914207 | Natural Symbols | Are objects and occurrences from nature to represent ideas commonly associated with them. | 61 | |
| 5268917359 | Conventional Symbols | Are objects and occurrences that have been invested with meaning by a group (religious, political, or cultural). | 62 | |
| 5268923672 | Literary Symbols | Are objects and occurrences that are sometimes conventional in the sense that they are found in a variety of works and are more generally recognized. | 63 | |
| 5268931698 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole or, occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part. | 64 | |
| 5268935096 | Synestheisa | When one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another. In literature, this refers to the practice of associating two or more different senses in the same image (audible, visual, olfactory, tactile, taste). | 65 | |
| 5268974840 | Syntax | The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is similar to diction, but you can differentiate them by thinking of it as groups of words, while diction refers to the individual words. | 66 | |
| 5268985944 | Theme | The central idea or mesage of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually it is unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction, it may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing. | 67 | |
| 5268992777 | Thesis | In expository writing, this statement is the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning or position. Expository writing is usually judged by analyzing how accurately and thoroughly a writer has proven this. | 68 | |
| 5269001148 | Tone | Similar to mood, this describes the author's attitude toward his/her material, the audience, or both. This is easier to determine in spoken language than in written language. Considering how a work would sound if it were read aloud can help in identifying an author's tone. | 69 | |
| 5269009051 | Transition | A word or phrase that links different ideas that effectively signal a shift from one idea to another. | 70 | |
| 5269023901 | Understatement | The ironic minimalizing of fact, this technique presents something as less significant hat it is often to produce humor or emphasis--opposite of hyperbole. | 71 | |
| 5269029685 | Wit | Intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights. It is humorous, while suggesting the speaker's verbal power in creating ingenious and perceptive remarks and often uses terse language that makes a pointed statement. | 72 |
