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| 6086282912 | Alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that occur close together | 0 | |
| 6710674327 | Allegory | similar to metaphor, but is usually more elaborate. In an allegorical narrative, each character (or, sometimes, object) has both a literal meaning and a consistent metaphorical meaning, and the story proceeds on two levels at once | 1 | |
| 6710676045 | Allusion | a figure of speech that makes a reference to a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication | 2 | |
| 6710677694 | Ambiguity | refers to the ways words or phrases can connote a range of meanings. Ambiguity points to the openness of language to different interpretations and understanding. | 3 | |
| 6710681262 | Anagnorisis | the Greek word for recognition or discovery, used by Aristotle in his Poetics to denote the turning point in a drama at which a character (usually the protagonist) recognizes the true state of affairs, having previously been in error or ignorance | 4 | |
| 6710682582 | Antithesis | A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure; direct contrast or opposition | 5 | |
| 6710684523 | Apostrophe | a figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman or someone already dead (as in a poem addressing the spirit of Abraham Lincoln) | 6 | |
| 6710686142 | Assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences | 7 | |
| 6710940907 | Blank Verse | Verse written in unrhymed, iambic pentameter as in Shakespeare's plays. | 8 | |
| 6710942248 | Cacophony | a combination of sounds in words that appear close together that creates a discordant, harsh, or unpleasant effect. Compare to euphony | 9 | |
| 6710944828 | Caesura | Comes from the Latin for "a cutting." _____ is a pause in a line of verse replicating natural breaks in language. Often caesuras occur between clauses or sentences or through the poet's use of punctuation. | 10 | |
| 6710946609 | Conceit | an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs an entire poem or poetic passage | 11 | |
| 6710947851 | Consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds to create internal rhyming with phrases or sentences | 12 | |
| 6710950310 | Cosmic Irony | predicated upon the notion that the fates, the gods, or the universe are either capricious or ultimately indifferent to human suffering. Thus, irony results from the contrast between the pathos of mankind's struggles and their ultimate futility | 13 | |
| 6710951078 | Diction | a writer's characteristic vocabulary or word choice; a writer's style of expression | 14 | |
| 6710952744 | Dramatic Irony | Occurs when the audience of a play or the reader of a work of literature knows something that a character in the work itself does not know. The irony is in the contrast between the intended meaning of the statements or actions of a character and the additional information understood by the audience | 15 | |
| 6710953931 | Ellipsis | omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not for understanding | 16 | |
| 6710955474 | Enjambment | French for "striding over," enjambment occurs when the sense and/or grammatical structure of a sentence moves from one verse line to the next without a punctuated pause. | 17 | |
| 6710959120 | Epigram | a concise, clever statement (or short poem) expressing a single thought or observation | 18 | |
| 6710960542 | Euphony | a combination of sounds in words that appear close together that creates a melodious, flowing, or pleasant effect. Compare to cacophony | 19 | |
| 6710964898 | Figurative Language | a way of saying one thing and meaning something more | 20 | |
| 6710967706 | Hyperbole | an exaggerated or extravagant statement used to make a strong impression, but not intended to be taken literally | 21 | |
| 6710968856 | Imagery | language that appeals to one (or more) of the five senses. visual, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, auditory, synaesthetic | 22 | |
| 6710970685 | In Medias Res | Latin for "into the middle of things." It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle—usually at some crucial point in the action | 23 | |
| 6710971575 | Intentional Fallacy | The intentional fallacy posits that the author is an unreliable source regarding the meaning and purpose of his or her text. Instead of focusing on the author's intentions, readers should base their interpretations upon the text itself and what is in it. | 24 | |
| 6710973145 | Irony | an incongruity between what a writer says or does, and what he or she means or what is generally understood | 25 | |
| 6710974866 | Juxtaposition | two items being placed in close proximity to one another in a sentence in order to highlight their essential difference | 26 | |
| 6710976241 | Litotes | a figure of speech in which, a certain statement is expressed by denying its opposite. For example, rather than merely saying that a person is rather attractive (or even very attractive), one might say that she is "not unattractive" | 27 | |
| 6710977363 | Melodramatic | characteristic of a play, film, or other work in which emotion is exaggerated and plot and action are emphasized in comparison to the more character-driven emphasis within a drama | 28 | |
| 6710979056 | Metaphor | an implied comparison between two essentially different things | 29 | |
| 6710980395 | Meter | The specific rhythms in poetry made by units of sound created by accented and unaccented syllables. Each metrical unit is called a foot (feet, plural). A foot usually consists of one or more stressed syllables with one or more unstressed syllables. | 30 | |
| 6710981670 | Metonymy | the substitution of one thing for another based on close association | 31 | |
| 6710982833 | Motif | A significant element that recurs either in a specific literary work, in a group of literary texts, or in literature as a whole. Motifs can be plots, imagery, symbols, themes, ideas, narrative details, or characters. In a specific literary work, motifs usually relate and contribute to the work's larger themes. | 32 | |
| 6710984046 | Onomatopoeia | refers to words whose sounds somehow reflect or mimic the objects they refer to | 33 | |
| 6710985506 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms | 34 | |
| 6710986409 | Paradox | a seemingly self-contradictory statement, which nevertheless contains a truth | 35 | |
| 6710987273 | Parallelism | a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses | 36 | |
| 6710988412 | Pathos | a quality in a literary work designed to arouse feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow | 37 | |
| 6710989732 | Peripeteia | a sudden reversal of a character's circumstances and fortunes, usually involving the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy, and often coinciding with the recognition or anagnorisis. | 38 | |
| 6710991658 | Persona | Originally referring to the masks worn by actors in ancient drama, persona now refers to the first-person voice or character an author uses to convey the story in a narrative. Although the persona uses "I," it is important not to equate the author and the persona. Author and persona should not be considered as synonyms. | 39 | |
| 6710996039 | Personification | treating something nonhuman as if it were human | 40 | |
| 6710997169 | Point of View | the related experience of the narrator—not that of the author; literary narration can occur from the first-person, second-person, or third-person point of view; third person narration can be further described as selective (or limited) or omniscient | 41 | |
| 6710999618 | Romantic Irony | Another form of structural irony is romantic irony, where the author builds and then shatters the illusion of reality he or she has created. Romantic irony reveals the author as the creator and manipulator of this particular reality. | 42 | |
| 6711000506 | Rhythm | The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse or (less often) prose. | 43 | |
| 6711001978 | Rhyme | a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words | 44 | |
| 6711003294 | Satire | a literary work or technique where human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement | 45 | |
| 6711004080 | Scansion | a way to mark the metrical patterns of a line of poetry (a way to count and mark the stressed and unstressed syllables) | 46 | |
| 6711005725 | Simile | en explicit comparison between two things, often using the word "like" or "as" | 47 | |
| 6711006905 | Slapstick | a boisterous form of comedy marked by chases, collisions, and crude practical jokes | 48 | |
| 6711007764 | Structural Irony | occurs when the author uses a structural element such as an unreliable narrator to create a discrepancy between what is perceived and what is true. | 49 | |
| 6711009320 | Symbol | something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible | 50 | |
| 6711010596 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword). Closely related to metonymy. | 51 | |
| 6711011634 | Syntax | the principles and rules used for constructing and arranging sentences. Consider the following: | 52 | |
| 6711012624 | loose sentence | a type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses. The meaning of a loose sentence can be easily understood in the very beginning of the sentence, unlike a periodic sentence. A periodic sentence is a sentence that is not grammatically complete until its end. Periodicity is accomplished by the use of parallel phrases or clauses at the opening or by the use of dependent clauses preceding the independent clause; that is, the kernel of thought contained in the subject/verb group appears at the end of a succession of modifiers. | 53 | |
| 6711014189 | Tone | the author's attitude toward his or her subject (usually implied) | 54 | |
| 6711015360 | Tropes | rope comes from the word "turning" and so tropes include figures of speech which somehow "turn" language to give it another meaning or sense. Examples of tropes include simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony, personification, and hyperbole, among others. | 55 | |
| 6711017035 | Understatement | use of language to deliberately understate (downplay) the obvious, the opposite of hyperbole | 56 | |
| 6711018908 | Verisimilitude | the quality of appearing to be true or real; something that has the appearance of being true or real | 57 | |
| 6711021638 | Ballad | a narrative poem traditionally set to music; any myth form may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts or fairy tales. Ballads often have alternating four-stress lines ("ballad meter") and simple repeating rhymes | 58 | |
| 6711022710 | Elegy | usually a formal lament for someone's death; a poem of mourning; a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally | 59 | |
| 6711024202 | Lyric | generally shorter poems describing a personal, individual experience | 60 | |
| 6711025106 | Narrative | a poem primarily intended to recount a succession of events | 61 | |
| 6711026169 | Ode | generally longer and more serious poems concerning a dignified subject | 62 | |
| 6711027945 | Sestina | a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time. The most common scheme in English is represented below: | 63 | |
| 6711029584 | Sonnet | a lyric poem of fourteen lines and a prescribed rhyme scheme (Italian or Shakespearean) | 64 |
