Terms : Hide Images
| 6420750575 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial sounds, usually consonants, in successive or neighboring words | 0 | |
| 6420750576 | Allusion | A reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize | 1 | |
| 6420750577 | Ambiguity | A word or idea that can be understood in multiple ways; frequently refers to the condition of being obscure or difficult to understand | 2 | |
| 6420750573 | Anagnorisis | Recognition of truth about one's self and his actions; moment of clarity | 3 | |
| 6420750578 | Anachronism | The misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom, or idea in time; also may refer to an individual or thing that is incorrectly placed in time | 4 | |
| 6420750579 | Analysis | Separating something into the components or elements of which it is made for close study | 5 | |
| 6430268805 | Antihero | a leading character who is not, like a hero, perfect or even outstanding, but is rather ordinary and representative of the more or less average person | 6 | |
| 6420750580 | Antithesis | means opposite and is used as a literary device to put two contrasting ideas together | 7 | |
| 6420750581 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea | 8 | |
| 6420750582 | Archetype | A theme, motif, symbol or stock character holding a familiar place in a culture's consciousness OR an original model on which copies are made | 9 | |
| 6420750583 | Assonance | The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words | 10 | |
| 6420750584 | Asyndeton | A construction in which elements are presented in a series without conjunctions | 11 | |
| 6420750586 | Cacophony/dissonance | The clash of discordant or harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase | 12 | |
| 6420750587 | Catharsis | A cleansing or purification of one's emotions through art | 13 | |
| 6420750588 | Characterization | The method of acquainting readers with characters by creating well-developed characters--the techniques a writer uses to develop various types of characters | 14 | |
| 6420750589 | Cliche | An expression that has been used so frequently it has lost its expressive power | 15 | |
| 6420750590 | Climax | The point of highest interest or greatest intensity in a literary work, or the major turning point in the plot | 16 | |
| 6420750591 | Colloquialism | Informal expression, or slang term--acceptable in conversation by not usually in formal writing | 17 | |
| 6420750592 | Conceit | A fanciful, particularly clever extended metaphor | 18 | |
| 6420750593 | Conflict | The problem or struggle in a narrative | 19 | |
| 6420750594 | Connotation | The association or implied meaning that a word carries along with its literal meaning | 20 | |
| 6420750595 | Consonance | The repetition of consonants in a sequence of nearby words, especially at the end of stressed syllables when there is no similar repetition of vowel sounds | 21 | |
| 6420750596 | Couplet | A pair of rhyming lines in a poem | 22 | |
| 6420750597 | Denotation | The explicit, literal meaning of a word | 23 | |
| 6420750598 | Diction | Specific word choice made by an author, often for effect but also for correctness and clarity | 24 | |
| 6420750599 | Dramatic irony/tragic irony | Technique in which the author lets the audience in on a character's situation while the character remains uninformed | 25 | |
| 6420750600 | Dramatic monologue | a poem in which a character speaks to one or more listeners who remain silent or whose replies are not revealed | 26 | |
| 6420750601 | Emphasis | Force or intensity of expression brought to bear on a particular part of a text or speech | 27 | |
| 6420750602 | Enjambment | The continuation of syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem into the next with no pause | 28 | |
| 6420750574 | Epiphany | A moment of sudden revelation or insight | 29 | |
| 6420750603 | Euphemism | An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant or vulgar | 30 | |
| 6420750604 | Euphony | A pleasing arrangement of sounds | 31 | |
| 6420750605 | Foil | A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast | 32 | |
| 6420750606 | Foreshadow | To present ideas, images, events, or comments that hint at events to come in a story | 33 | |
| 6420750607 | Hubris | Excessive pride or arrogance that results in the downfall of the protagonist | 34 | |
| 6420750608 | Hyperbole | Excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact for effect | 35 | |
| 6420750610 | Imagery | Language that brings to mind sense-impressions, especially via figures of speech | 36 | |
| 6420750611 | Inversion | The syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence | 37 | |
| 6420750612 | Juxtaposition | Technique of placing two elements side by side to present a compare/contrast of the two | 38 | |
| 6420750613 | Metonymy | A figure of speech substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it | 39 | |
| 6420750614 | Mood | The emotional atmosphere created by a work (most notably by its setting) | 40 | |
| 6420750615 | Motif | A recurring idea, structure, contrast, or device that develops or informs the major themes of a work | 41 | |
| 6420750616 | Motivation | A psychological factor that provides a directional force or reason for behavior. | 42 | |
| 6420750617 | Narrator | The one who tells the story; may be first- or third-person, limited or omniscient | 43 | |
| 6420750618 | Nostalgia | A yearning for the past or for some condition or state of existence that cannot be recovered | 44 | |
| 6420750619 | Octave | An eight-line unit of verse constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the first eight lines of an Italian sonnet | 45 | |
| 6420750620 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like the thing or action they refer to | 46 | |
| 6420750621 | Overstatement | An exaggeration of fact | 47 | |
| 6420750622 | Paradox | A statement that seems absurd or even contradictory but that often expresses a deeper truth | 48 | |
| 6420750623 | Parallelism | Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other | 49 | |
| 6420750624 | Petrarchan/Italian sonnet | a sonnet which consists of an octave and a sestet with the rhyme scheme being abbaabba cdecde. There is usually a pronounced tonal shift between the octave and sestet as well. | 50 | |
| 6420750625 | Polysyndeton | The use, for rhetorical effect, of more conjunctions than is necessary or natural | 51 | |
| 6420750626 | Pun | A play on words that exploits the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different meanings | 52 | |
| 6420750627 | Quatrain | A four-line stanza with a rhyming pattern | 53 | |
| 6420750628 | Repetition | Bringing up words or ideas on multiple occasions to emphasize the importance of these words or ideas | 54 | |
| 6420750629 | Retrospection | A narrative technique in which some of the events of a story are described after events that occur later in time have already been narrated; also called analepsis and flashback | 55 | |
| 6420750630 | Satire | A work (usually humorous) that exposes to ridicule the shortcomings of individuals, institutions, or society, often to make a political point | 56 | |
| 6420750631 | Sestet | A six-line unit of verse constituting a stanza or section of a poem; the last six lines of an Italian sonnet | 57 | |
| 6420750632 | Setting | The location of a narrative in time and space creating mood and/or atmosphere | 58 | |
| 6420750633 | Shakespearean/English sonnet | a sonnet which consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The most common rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. | 59 | |
| 6420750634 | Shifts/turns | Changes in the speaker's attitude. Look for key words such as but, yet, however, and although, punctuation, and stanza division. | 60 | |
| 6420750635 | Situational irony | Technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast to another, usually more prevalent, understanding of the same situation | 61 | |
| 6420750636 | Soliloquy | A speech in which a character does not address others | 62 | |
| 6420750638 | Speaker | The personage or persona responsible for the voice in a piece of literature; should not be confused with the author | 63 | |
| 6420750639 | Stanza | A fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem | 64 | |
| 6420750640 | Stream-of-consciousness | A writing style in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind | 65 | |
| 6420750641 | Structure | The arrangement or framework of a sentence, paragraph, or entire work | 66 | |
| 6420750642 | Style | The choices an author makes; the combination of distinctive features of a literary work | 67 | |
| 6420750643 | Symbolism | The use of objects, characters, figures, or colors to represent abstract ideas or concepts | 68 | |
| 6420750644 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech, using one part of an object to represent the entire object | 69 | |
| 6420750645 | Syntax | The way the words in a piece of writing are arranged into sentences | 70 | |
| 6420750646 | Theme | A fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work; a central idea of a work | 71 | |
| 6420750647 | Thesis | The primary position taken by a writer or speaker--a statement of purpose, intent, or main idea of an essay | 72 | |
| 6420750648 | Tone | The attitude of an author, usually implied, toward the subject or audience | 73 | |
| 6420750572 | Tragic flaw | A character trait that leads to the downfall of a hero, while also (often) making him admirable | 74 | |
| 6420750650 | Turning point | A point in a work in which a very significant change occurs | 75 | |
| 6420750651 | Understatement | The deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is; a deliberate under-emphasis | 76 | |
| 6420750652 | Unreliable narration | A process of narrating in which the narrator is revealed over time to be an untrustworthy source of information | 77 | |
| 6420750653 | Verbal irony | The use of a statement that, because of its context, means its opposite | 78 | |
| 6420750654 | Voice | An author's individual way of using language to reflect his/her own personality and attitudes; communicated through tone, word choice (or diction), and sentence structure | 79 |
