vocab.
Terms : Hide Images
| 24274240 | Abstract | An abbreviated synopsis of a longer work of scholarship or research. | 0 | |
| 24274241 | Adage | A saying or proverb containing a truth based on experience and often couched in metaphorical language. | 1 | |
| 24274242 | Allegory | A stroy in which a second meaning is to be read beneath the surface. | 2 | |
| 24274243 | Alliteration | The repetition of one or more initial consonants in a group of words or lines in a poem. | 3 | |
| 24274244 | Allusion | A reference to a person, place, or event meant to create an effect or enhance the meaning of an idea. | 4 | |
| 24274245 | Ambiguity | A vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation. | 5 | |
| 24274246 | Anachronism | A person, scene, event, or other element in literature that fails to correspond with the time or era in which the work is set. | 6 | |
| 24274247 | Analogy | A comparison that points out similarities between two dissimilar things. | 7 | |
| 24274248 | Annotation | A brief explanation, summary, or evaluation of text or work of literature. | 8 | |
| 24274249 | Antagonist | A character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist produces tension or conflict. | 9 | |
| 24274250 | Antithesis | A rhetorical opposition or contrast of ideas by means of a grammatical arrangement of words, clauses or sentences, as in the following. | 10 | |
| 24274251 | Aphorism | A short, pithy statement of generally accepted truth or sentiment. | 11 | |
| 24274252 | Apostrophe | A location that addresses a person or personified thing not present. | 12 | |
| 24274253 | Assonance | The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in group of words or lines of poem. | 13 | |
| 24274254 | Ballad | A simple narrative verse that tells a story that is sung or recited. | 14 | |
| 24274255 | Bard | A poet; in olden times, a performer who told heroic stories to musical accomaniment. | 15 | |
| 24274256 | Burlesque | A work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque imitation. | 16 | |
| 24274257 | Cacophony | Grating, inharmonious sounds. | 17 | |
| 24274258 | Caesure | A pause somewhere in the middle of a verse, often marked by punctuation. | 18 | |
| 24274259 | Canon | The works considered most important in a national literature or period; works widely read and studied. | 19 | |
| 24274260 | Caricature | A grotesque likeness of striking qualities in persons and things. | 20 | |
| 24274261 | Carpe diem | Literally, "seize the day"; enjoy life while you can, a common theme in literature. | 21 | |
| 24274262 | Catharsis | A cleansing of the spirit brought about by the pity and terror of a dramatic tragedy. | 22 | |
| 24274263 | Classical, classicism | Deriving from the orderly qualities of anceint Greek and Roman culutrue; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity, and restraint. | 23 | |
| 24274264 | Climax | The high point, or turning point, of a story or play. | 24 | |
| 24274265 | Connotation | The suggested or implied meaning of a word or phrase. | 25 | |
| 24274266 | Consonance | The repetition of two or more consonant sounds in a group of wordsor a line of poetry. | 26 | |
| 24628512 | Couplet | A pair of rhyming lines in a poem. Two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter is sometimes called a heroic couplet. | 27 | |
| 24628513 | Denotation | The dictionary definition of a word. | 28 | |
| 24628514 | Denouement | The resolution that occurs at the end of a play or work of fiction. | 29 | |
| 24628515 | Deus ex machina | In literature, the use of an artificial device or gimmick to solve a problem. | 30 | |
| 24628516 | Diction | The choice of words in oral and written discourse. | 31 | |
| 24628517 | Dramatic Irony | A circumstance in which the audience or reader knows more about a situation than a character. | 32 | |
| 24628518 | Elegy | A poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing or death of something or someone of value. | 33 | |
| 24628519 | Enjambment | In poetry, the use of successive lines with no punctuation or pause between them. | 34 | |
| 24628520 | Epic | A narrative poem that tells of the adventures and exploits of a hero. | 35 | |
| 24628521 | Euphony | Pleasing, harmonious sounds. | 36 | |
| 24628522 | Epithet | An adjective or phase that expresses a striking quality of a person or thing. | 37 | |
| 24628523 | Euphemism | A mild or less negative usage for a harsh or blunt term. | 38 | |
| 24628524 | Extended metaphor | A series of comparisons between two unlike objects. | 39 | |
| 24628525 | Fable | A short tale often with nonhuman characters from which a useful lesson may be drawn. | 40 | |
| 24628526 | Falling action | The action in a play or story that occurs after the climax and that leads to the conclusion and often to the resolution of the conflict. | 41 | |
| 24628527 | Fantasy | A story containing unreal, imaginary features. | 42 | |
| 24628528 | Farce | A comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purposes. | 43 | |
| 24628529 | Figure of speech, figurative language | In contrast to literal language, figurative language implies meanings. Figures of speech include metaphors, similies, and personification, among many others. | 44 | |
| 24628530 | First-person narrative | A narrative told by a character involved in the story, using first-person pronouns such as I and we. | 45 | |
| 24628531 | Flashback | A return to an earlier time in a story or play in order to clarify present actions or or circumstances. | 46 | |
| 24628532 | Foot | A unit of stressed and unstressed syllables used to determine the meter of a poetice line. | 47 | |
| 24628533 | Foreshadowing | Providing hints of things to come to a story or a play. | 48 | |
| 24628534 | Free verse | A kind of poetry without rhymed lines, rhythm, or fixed metrical feet. | 49 | |
| 24628535 | Genre | A term used to describe literary forms, such as novel, play, and essay. | 50 | |
| 24628536 | Hubris | The excessive pride that often leads tragic heroes to their death. | 51 | |
| 24628537 | Hyperbole | Overstatement; gross exaggeration for rhetorical effect. | 52 | |
| 24628538 | In medias res | A Latin term for a narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point. | 53 | |
| 24628539 | Invective | A direct verbal assault; a denunciation. | 54 | |
| 24628540 | Irony | A mode of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated, often implying ridicule or light sarcasm; a state of affairs or events that is the reversee of what might have been expected. | 55 | |
| 24628541 | Lampoon | A mocking, satirical assault on a person or situation. | 56 | |
| 24628542 | Litotes | A form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensite. | 57 | |
| 24628543 | Maxim | A saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or truth. | 58 | |
| 24628544 | Melodrama | A literary form in which events are exaggerated in order to create an extreme emotional response. | 59 | |
| 24628545 | Metaphor | A figure of speech that compares unlike objects. | 60 | |
| 24628546 | Meter | The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables found in poetry. | 61 | |
| 24628547 | Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to represent something else with which it is associated. | 62 | |
| 24628548 | Mock epic | A parody of traditional epic form. | 63 | |
| 24628549 | Mood | The emotional tone in a work of literature. | 64 | |
| 24628550 | Moral | A brief and often simlistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature. | 65 | |
| 24628551 | Motif | A phrase, idea, or event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in a work of literature. | 66 | |
| 24628552 | Narrative | A form of verse or prose that tells a story. | 67 | |
| 24628553 | Naturalism | A term often used as a synonym for realism; also view of experience that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic. | 68 | |
| 24628554 | Non sequitur | A statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before. | 69 | |
| 24628555 | Ode | A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 70 | |
| 24628556 | Omniscient narrator | A narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characters, setting, background, and all other elements of the story. | 71 | |
| 24628557 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning. | 72 | |
| 24628558 | Oxymoron | A term consisting of contradictory elements juxtaposed to create a paradoxical effect. | 73 | |
| 24628559 | Parable | A story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived. | 74 | |
| 24628560 | Paradox | A statement that seems self-contradictory but is nevertheless true. | 75 | |
| 24628561 | Parody | A imitation of a work meant to ridicule its style and subject. | 76 | |
| 24628562 | Paraphrase | A version of a text put into simpler, everyday, words. | 77 | |
| 24628563 | Pathos | That element in literature that stimulates pity or sorrow. | 78 | |
| 24628564 | Pentameter | A verse with five poetic feet per line. | 79 | |
| 24628565 | Persona | The role or facade that a character assumes or depicts to a reader, a viewer, or the world at large. | 80 | |
| 24631373 | Personification | A figure of speech in which objects and animals are given human characteristics. | 81 | |
| 24631374 | Plot | The interrelationship among the events in a story; the plot line is the pattern of events, including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. | 82 | |
| 24631375 | Point of view | The relation in which a narrator or speaker stands to the story or subjective matter of a poem. A story told in the first person has an internal point of view; an observer uses an external point of view. | 83 | |
| 24631376 | Protagonist | The main character in a work of literature. | 84 | |
| 24631377 | Pun | A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings. | 85 | |
| 24631378 | Quatrain | A four-line poem or a four-line unit of a longer poem. | 86 | |
| 24631379 | Realism | The depiction of people, things, and events as they really are without idealization or exaggeration for effect. | 87 | |
| 24631380 | Rhyme | The repetition of similar sounds at regualar intervals, used mostly in poetry. | 88 | |
| 24631381 | Rhyme scheme | The pattern of rhymes within a given poem. | 89 | |
| 24631382 | Rhythm | The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of poetry. | 90 | |
| 24631383 | Sarcasm | A sharp, caustic expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt; different from irony, which is more subtle. | 91 | |
| 24631384 | Satire | A literary style used to poke fun at, attack or ridicule an idea, vice, or foible, often for the purpose of inducing change. | 92 | |
| 24631385 | Setting | The total environment fro the action in a novel or play. It includes time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spirtual circumstances. | 93 | |
| 24631386 | Similie | A figurative comparison using the words like or as. | 94 | |
| 24631387 | Sonnet | A form of verse usually consisting of three four-line units called quatrains and a concluding couple. | 95 | |
| 24631388 | Stanza | A group of two or more lines in poetry combined according to subject matter, rhyme, or some other plan. | 96 | |
| 24631389 | Stream of consciousness | A style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind. | 97 | |
| 24631390 | Symbolism | The use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object. | 98 | |
| 24631391 | Syntax | The organization of language into meaningful structure; every sentence has a particular syntax, or pattern ow words. | 99 | |
| 24631392 | Theme | The main idea or meaning, often an abstract idea upon which a work of literature is built. | 100 | |
| 24631393 | Tone | The author's attitude toward the subject being written about. The tone is the characteristic emotion that pervades a work or part of a work-- the spirit or quality that is the work's emotional essence. | 101 | |
| 24631394 | Tragedy | A form of literature in which the heor is destroyed by some character flaw and a set of forces that cause the hero considerable anguish. | 102 | |
| 24631395 | Strope | The generic name for a figure of speech such as image, symbol, similie, and metaphor. | 103 | |
| 24631396 | Verbal irony | A discrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words. | 104 | |
| 24631397 | Verse | A synonym for poetry. Also a group of lines in a song or poem; also a single line of poetry. | 105 | |
| 24631398 | 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. | 106 | |
| 24631399 | Villanelle | A Frence verse form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous but consisting of nineteen lines and a prescribed pattern of rhymes. | 107 | |
| 24631400 | Voice | The real or assumed personality used by a writer or speaker. In grammar, active voice and passive voice refer to the use of verbs. A verb is in the passive voice when it expresses an action performed upon its subject or when the subject is the result of the action. | 108 |
