| 10206522160 | Abstract | Definition: thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances
Example: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood | | 0 |
| 10206613426 | Adage | Definition: a traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation; proverb
Example: "The pen is mightier than the sword." | | 1 |
| 10206665167 | Allegory | Definition: a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell is allegory for the events that led to the Russian revolution | | 2 |
| 10206665168 | Alliteration | Definition: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. | | 3 |
| 10206669707 | Allusion | Definition: a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication
Example: 10 Things I Hate About You alludes to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew | | 4 |
| 10206736698 | Ambiguity | Definition: the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage
Example: The Sick Rose by William Blake | | 5 |
| 10206736699 | Anachronism | Definition: something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time
Example: Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola, had a pair of converse in the background | | 6 |
| 10206737722 | Analogy | Definition: a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based
Example: "Life is like a race." | | 7 |
| 10206737723 | Anecdote | Definition: a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person
Example: Forrest Gump narrates the movie with anecdotes about his life. | | 8 |
| 10206739025 | Antagonist | Definition: A character or force in conflict with the main character
Example: Hades in Hercules | | 9 |
| 10206739026 | Antithesis | Definition: Direct opposite
Example: "Many are called, but few are chosen." | | 10 |
| 10239866052 | Aphorism | Definition: A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life.
Example: "Time is money." | | 11 |
| 10239896838 | Apostrophe | Definition: a digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea
Example: In Collateral Beauty the main character writes letters to Death, Love and Time. | | 12 |
| 10239911176 | Archetype | Definition: the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype
Example: The Hero is used for Katniss in the Hunger Games. | | 13 |
| 10239911177 | Assonance | Definition: repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity
Example: El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe | | 14 |
| 10239911178 | Ballad | Definition: any light, simple song, especially one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more stanzas all sung to the same melody
Example: The Ballad of Billy the Kid by Billy Joel | | 15 |
| 10239911653 | Bathos | Definition: the act of a writer or a poet falling into inconsequential and absurd metaphors, descriptions, or ideas in an effort to be increasingly emotional or passionate
Example: I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (BBC radio comedy) | | 16 |
| 10239911654 | Blank verse | Definition: un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter
Example: "Birds chirp in the orchard of the cherry and try to sing a little later." | | 17 |
| 10239911731 | Caesura | Definition: rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence
Example: I'm Nobody! Who Are You? (By Emily Dickinson)
I'm nobody! || Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us || - don't tell!
They'd banish || - you know! | | 18 |
| 10239912476 | Canon | Definition: a long list of works taken as authentic
Example: The Bible | | 19 |
| 10239912477 | Caricature | Definition: plastic illustration, derisive drawing, or a portrayal based on exaggeration of the natural features, which gives a humorous touch to the subject
Example: political cartoons often show political figures with exaggerated features | | 20 |
| 10239912478 | Climax | Definition: particular point in a narrative at which the conflict or tension hits the highest point
Example: Romeo and Juliet where Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel after he (Tybalt) killed Mercutio | | 21 |
| 10239913341 | Colloquial | Definition: the use of informal words, phrases, or even slang in a piece of writing
Example: Wanna - want to | | 22 |
| 10239913342 | Conceit | Definition: develops a comparison which is exceedingly unlikely but is, nonetheless, intellectually imaginative
Example: Romeo and Juliet where Juliet is compared to a boat and storm. | | 23 |
| 10239914308 | Connotation | Definition: meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly
Example: Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.." Implies fairness. | | 24 |
| 10239914309 | Consonance | Definition: repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity
Example: She sells sea shells by the sea shore. | | 25 |
| 10239914325 | Couplet | Definition: a pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem.
Example: Shakespeare's sonnets had couplets in them. (Sonnet III) | | 26 |
| 10239916356 | Diction | Definition: style of speaking or writing, determined by the choice of words by a speaker or a writer
Example: A Tale of Two Cities "It was the..." this repetition makes the readers pay closer attention. | | 27 |
| 10239916357 | Deus ex machina | Definition: the circumstance where an implausible concept or a divine character is introduced into a storyline, for the purpose of resolving its conflict and procuring an interesting outcome
Example: The T-rex's arrival in Jurassic Park | | 28 |
| 10239916371 | Elegy | Definition: a sorrowful poem or speech
Example: O Captain! My Captain! (Walt Whitman) | | 29 |
| 10239917048 | Ellipsis | Definition: used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or event, which gives the reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out
Example: Call Me By Your Name uses ellipsis for time passing. | | 30 |
| 10239917049 | Enjambment | Definition: moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark
Example: It's a Beauteous Evening (William Wordsworth) | | 31 |
| 10239917050 | Epic | Definition: long narrative poem, usually with a hero
Example: The Odyssey (Homer) | | 32 |
| 10239917918 | Epigram | Definition: ingenious or witty statements
Example: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt | | 33 |
| 10239917919 | Euphemism | Definition: polite, indirect expressions that replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite, or which suggest something unpleasant
Example: "Kick the bucket." | | 34 |
| 10239917920 | Expostion | Definition: used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements of a work to the audience or readers
Example: The opening title sequence in Star Wars | | 35 |
| 10239918318 | Fable | Definition: a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral lesson at the end
Example: Aesop's Fables | | 36 |
| 10239918319 | Falling action | Definition: occurs right after the climax, when the main problem of the story resolves
Example: In The Edge of Seventeen when Nadine apologizes to her brother. | | 37 |
| 10239918320 | Farce | Definition: type of comedy that makes use of highly exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining the audience
Example: The Importance of Being Earnest ( Oscar Wilde) | | 38 |
| 10239919299 | First-person narrative | Definition: A narrative told by a character involved in the story, using first-person pronouns such as I and we.
Example: Call Me By Your Name | | 39 |
| 10239919300 | Flashback | Definition: a scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story
Example: Forrest Gump | | 40 |
| 10239919301 | Foil | Definition: a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character
Example: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | | 41 |
| 10239919838 | Foreshadowing | Definition: a narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader
Example: Shaun of The Dead when Ed plans what to do the next day, that becomes the entire plot of the film. | | 42 |
| 10239919839 | Free verse | Definition: poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms
Example: Slam poetry | | 43 |
| 10239919840 | Genre | Definition: type of art, literature, or music characterized by a specific form, content, and style
Example: Fiction and non-fiction | | 44 |
| 10239920813 | Hyperbole | Definition: a figure of speech that involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis
Example: "It weighs a ton." | | 45 |
| 10239920814 | Imagery | Definition: figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses
Example: The Shark (Edward John Pratt) | | 46 |
| 10239922582 | In medias res | Definition: into the middle of a narrative; without preamble
Example: The Iliad begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon | | 47 |
| 10244856708 | Irony | Definition: words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated
Example: Being an Olympic swimmer and later drowning. | | 48 |
| 10244856709 | Juxtapose | Definition: two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem, for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts
Example: The opening line of Tale of Two Cities | | 49 |
| 10244856710 | Litotes | Definition: a positive statement expressed by negating its opposite expressions
Example: " A million dollars in no small amount." | | 50 |
| 10244857291 | Lyric | Definition: a collection of verses and choruses, making up a complete song, or a short and non-narrative poem
Example: Songs have lyrics. | | 51 |
| 10244857292 | Metaphor | Definition: a comparison without the use of like or as
Example: She was a cow. | | 52 |
| 10244858121 | Meter | Definition: a collection of verses and choruses, making up a complete song, or a short and non-narrative poem
Example: "Don't search faults. Find remedies." | | 53 |
| 10244858122 | Metonymy | Definition: replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated
Example: "Let me give you a hand." | | 54 |
| 10244858987 | Mood | Definition: evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions
Example: The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) has a mood of uncanniness. | | 55 |
| 10244858988 | Motif | Definition: object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work
Example: Hamlet has a motif of incest throughout the work. | | 56 |
| 10244858989 | Narrator | Definition: person telling the story
Example: Forrest Gump is the narrator of the movie | | 57 |
| 10244859669 | Ode | Definition: literary technique that is lyrical in nature, but not very lengthy
Example: Ode to Spring (By Thomas Gray) | | 58 |
| 10244859670 | Omniscient point of view | Definition: literary technique of writing a narrative in third person, in which the narrator knows the feelings and thoughts of every character in the story
Example: The Uglies series | | 59 |
| 10244861747 | Onomatopoeia | Definition: a word that imitates the sound it represents
Example: Come Down, O Maid (By Alfred Lord Tennyson)
"The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees..." | | 60 |
| 10244861748 | Oxymoron | Definition: a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase
Example: "O loving hate!" (Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare) | | 61 |
| 10244862430 | Parable | Definition: a figure of speech, which presents a short story, typically with a moral lesson at the end
Example: The Boy Who Cried Wolf | | 62 |
| 10244862431 | Paradox | Definition: a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly, but which may include a latent truth
Example: "I can resist anything but temptation." - Oscar Wilde | | 63 |
| 10244863732 | Parody | Definition: an imitation of a particular writer, artist, or genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect
Example: Weird Al makes parodies | | 64 |
| 10244863733 | Pastoral | Definition: a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life
Example: Heidi by Johanna Spyri | | 65 |
| 10244863734 | Pathos | Definition: quality of an experience in life, or a work of art, that stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy, and sorrow
Example: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)
"Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.
Her body sleeps in Capels' monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives.
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault." | | 66 |
| 10244865270 | Persona | Definition: The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience.
Example: Charlie Chaplin's character The Little Tramp | | 67 |
| 10244865271 | Personification | Definition: A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes
Example: Animal Farm, the animals act like people | | 68 |
| 10244865272 | Plot | Definition: Sequence of events in a story
Example: Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution | | 69 |
| 10244866819 | Protagonist | Definition: The central character in a work of literature
Example: Katniss in the Hunger Games | | 70 |
| 10244866820 | Quatrain | Definition: a verse with four lines, or even a full poem containing four lines, having an independent and separate theme
Example: A Red, Red Rose (By Robert Burns)
"O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O, my luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune." | | 71 |
| 10244866821 | Realism | Definition: a literary technique to describe story elements, such as setting, characters, themes, etc., without using elaborate imagery, or figurative language, such as similes and metaphors
Example: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
by John Ashbery | | 72 |
| 10244867498 | Refrain | Definition: a verse, a line, a set, or a group of lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different section
Example: O Cauldron, don't distress
For those who put you in trouble,
Under the sky, below the heather;
Whose bones and blood, now dry and dust,
O Cauldron, don't distress. | | 73 |
| 10244867499 | Rhetorical question | Definition: asked just for effect, or to lay emphasis on some point being discussed, when no real answer is expected
Example: Ode to the West Wind (By Percy Bysshe Shelley)
"...O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" | | 74 |
| 10244868015 | Rhyme | Definition: repetition of similar sounding words, occurring at the end of lines in poems or songs
Example: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses, And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again!" | | 75 |
| 10244868016 | Rhythm | Definition: literary device that demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables, particularly in verse form
Example: Romeo Juliet (By William Shakespeare)
"Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;" | | 76 |
| 10244869591 | Rising action | Definition: series of relevant incidents that create suspense, interest, and tension in a narrative
Example: The Conjuring where the mom gets possessed and Ed + Lorraine come over to exorcise her. | | 77 |
| 10244869592 | Sarcasm | Definition: the use of irony to mock or convey contempt
Example: Road not taken (By Robert Frost)
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." | | 78 |
| 10244869593 | Satire | Definition: a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society, by using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule
Example: A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift | | 79 |
| 10244870225 | Setting | Definition: the context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs
Example: The City of Ember takes place in the future underground. | | 80 |
| 10244870226 | Shakespearean sonnet | Definition: There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet. The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains with four lines each. In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab cdcd efef.
Example: Sonnet 18
hall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. | | 81 |
| 10244870887 | Simile | Definition: A comparison using "like" or "as"
Example: He was like a dog. | | 82 |
| 10244870888 | Soliloquy | Definition: popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a character
Example: Hamlet (By William Shakespeare)
"To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..." | | 83 |
| 10244870889 | Stanza | Definition: a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter, or rhyming scheme
Example: Essay on Criticism (By Alexander Pope)
"True wit is nature to advantage dress'd;
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd." | | 84 |
| 10244872444 | Stereotype | Definition: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
Example: All Americans like bacon. | | 85 |
| 10244872445 | Structure | Definition: the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex
Example: In poetry, the poems could be in sonnet form or free verse. | | 86 |
| 10244872446 | Style | Definition: the way a writer writes
Example: Argumentative, descriptive, persuasive or narrative | | 87 |
| 10244873417 | Syllogism | Definition: rhetorical device that starts an argument with a reference to something general, and from this it draws a conclusion about something more specific
Example: Timon of Athens (By William Shakespeare)
Flavius: "Have you forgot me, sir?"
Timon: "Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men;
Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot thee." | | 88 |
| 10244873426 | Synecdoche | Definition: a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole, or it may use a whole to represent a part
Example: The word "glasses" refers to spectacles. | | 89 |
| 10244874689 | Syntax | Definition: set of rules in a language
Example: A Farewell to Arms (By Ernest Hemingway)
"They left me alone and I lay in bed and read the papers awhile, the news from the front, and the list of dead officers with their decorations and then reached down and brought up the bottle of Cinzano and held it straight up on my stomach, the cool glass against my stomach, and took little drinks making rings on my stomach from holding the bottle there between drinks, and watched it get dark outside over the roofs of the town." | | 90 |
| 10244874690 | Terza rima | Definition: n arrangement of triplets, especially in iambs, that rhyme aba bcb cdc, etc
Example: Divine Comedy (Dante) | | 91 |
| 10244874691 | Theme | Definition: a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work, which may be stated directly or indirectly
Example: Crime and Mystery is theme of the Sherlock Holmes books | | 92 |
| 10244875411 | Tone | Definition: an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience
Example: Lighthearted tone in The Princess Bride | | 93 |
| 10244875412 | Tragedy | Definition: type of drama that presents a serious subject matter about human suffering and corresponding terrible events in a dignified manner
Example: Hamlet (Shakespeare) | | 94 |
| 10244891651 | Voice | Definition: the form or a format through which narrators tell their stories
Example: Author's voice and character's voice | | 95 |
