Terms : Hide Images
| 4243293447 | Ad Hominem | An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack. | 0 | |
| 4243293448 | Adjective | The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun. | 1 | |
| 4243293449 | Adverb | The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. | 2 | |
| 4243293450 | Allegory | Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text. | 3 | |
| 4243293451 | Alliteration | The repetition of an initial consonant sound. | 4 | |
| 4243293452 | Allusion | A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional. | 5 | |
| 4243293453 | Ambiguity | The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage. | 6 | |
| 4243293454 | Analogy | Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases. | 7 | |
| 4243293455 | Anaphora | The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. | 8 | |
| 4243293456 | Antecedent | The noun or noun phrase referred to by a pronoun. | 9 | |
| 4243293457 | Antithesis | The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases. | 10 | |
| 4243293458 | Aphorism | (1) A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion. (2) A brief statement of a principle. | 11 | |
| 4243293459 | Apostrophe | A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing. | 12 | |
| 4243293460 | Appeal to Authority | A fallacy in which a speaker or writer seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for a famous person or institution. | 13 | |
| 4243293461 | Appeal to Ignorance | A fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness. | 14 | |
| 4243293462 | Argument | A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood. | 15 | |
| 4243293463 | Assonance | The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words. | 16 | |
| 4243293464 | Asyndeton | The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of polysyndeton). | 17 | |
| 4243293465 | Character | An individual (usually a person) in a narrative (usually a work of fiction or creative nonfiction). | 18 | |
| 4243293466 | Chiasmus | A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. | 19 | |
| 4243293467 | Circular Argument | An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove. | 20 | |
| 4243293468 | Claim | An arguable statement, which may be a claim of fact, value, or policy. | 21 | |
| 4243293469 | Clause | A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate. | 22 | |
| 4243293470 | Climax | Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events. | 23 | |
| 4243293471 | Colloquial | Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English. | 24 | |
| 4243293472 | Comparison | A rhetorical strategy in which a writer examines similarities and/or differences between two people, places, ideas, or objects. | 25 | |
| 4243293473 | Complement | A word or word group that completes the predicate in a sentence. | 26 | |
| 4243293474 | Concession | An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent's point. | 27 | |
| 4243293475 | Confirmation | The main part of a text in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated. | 28 | |
| 4243293476 | Conjunction | The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. | 29 | |
| 4243293477 | Connotation | The emotional implications and associations that a word may carry. | 30 | |
| 4243293478 | Coordination | The grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance. Contrast with subordination. | 31 | |
| 4243293479 | Deduction | A method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises. | 32 | |
| 4243293480 | Denotation | The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings. | 33 | |
| 4243293481 | Dialect | A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary. | 34 | |
| 4243293482 | Diction | (1) The choice and use of words in speech or writing. (2) A way of speaking, usually assessed in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution. | 35 | |
| 4243293483 | Didactic | Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively. | 36 | |
| 4243293484 | Encomium | A tribute or eulogy in prose or verse glorifying people, objects, ideas, or events. | 37 | |
| 4243293485 | Epiphora | The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. (Also known as epistrophe.) | 38 | |
| 4243293486 | Epitaph | (1) A short inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone or monument. (2) A statement or speech commemorating someone who has died: a funeral oration. | 39 | |
| 4243293487 | Ethos | A persuasive appeal based on the projected character of the speaker or narrator. | 40 | |
| 4243293488 | Eulogy | A formal expression of praise for someone who has recently died. | 41 | |
| 4243293489 | Euphemism | The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit. | 42 | |
| 4243293490 | Exposition | A statement or type of composition intended to give information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea. | 43 | |
| 4243293491 | Extended Metaphor | A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. | 44 | |
| 4243293492 | Fallacy | An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. | 45 | |
| 4243293493 | False Dilemma | A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in fact more options are available. | 46 | |
| 4243293494 | Figurative Language | Language in which figures of speech (such as metaphors, similes, and hyperbole) freely occur. | 47 | |
| 4243293495 | Figures of Speech | The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, order, or significance. | 48 | |
| 4243293496 | Flashback | A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal chronological development of a story. | 49 | |
| 4243293497 | Genre | A category of artistic composition, as in film or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content. | 50 | |
| 4243293498 | Hasty Generalization | A fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. | 51 | |
| 4243293499 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. | 52 | |
| 4243293500 | Imagery | Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses. | 53 | |
| 4243293501 | Induction | A method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances. | 54 | |
| 4243293502 | Invective | Denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or something. | 55 | |
| 4243293503 | Irony | The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. | 56 | |
| 4243293504 | Isocolon | A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. | 57 | |
| 4243293505 | Jargon | The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders. | 58 | |
| 4243293506 | Litotes | A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. | 59 | |
| 4243293507 | Loose Sentence | A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses. Contrast with periodic sentence. | 60 | |
| 4243293508 | Metaphor | A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. | 61 | |
| 4243293509 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty"). | 62 | |
| 4243293510 | Mode of Discourse | The way in which information is presented in a text. The four traditional modes are narration, description, exposition, and argument. | 63 | |
| 4243293511 | Mood | (1) The quality of a verb that conveys the writer's attitude toward a subject. (2) The emotion evoked by a text. | 64 | |
| 4243293512 | Narrative | A rhetorical strategy that recounts a sequence of events, usually in chronological order. | 65 | |
| 4243293513 | Noun | The part of speech (or word class) that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action. | 66 | |
| 4243293514 | Onomatopoeia | The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. | 67 | |
| 4243293515 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. | 68 | |
| 4243293516 | Paradox | A statement that appears to contradict itself. | 69 | |
| 4243293517 | Parallelism | The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. | 70 | |
| 4243293518 | Parody | A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule. | 71 | |
| 4243293519 | Pathos | The means of persuasion that appeals to the audience's emotions. | 72 | |
| 4243293520 | Periodic Sentence | A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax. | 73 | |
| 4243293521 | Personification | A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities. | 74 | |
| 4243293522 | Point of View | The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or presents information. | 75 | |
| 4243293523 | Predicate | One of the two main parts of a sentence or clause, modifying the subject and including the verb, objects, or phrases governed by the verb. | 76 | |
| 4243293524 | Pronoun | A word (a part of speech or word class) that takes the place of a noun. | 77 | |
| 4243293525 | Prose | Ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction) as distinguished from verse. | 78 | |
| 4243293526 | Refutation | The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. | 79 |
