| Word | Definition |
| alliteration | use of the same letter in a sentence(Shelly sells sea shells saturday) |
| allusion | reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person,place,or thing. |
| anaphora | repetition of the same word or group of words, and ideas. (ex: i will rock, i will roll, i will win.) |
| archetype | character, actionm or situation that is a prototype or pattern of hunman life generally |
| assonance | esemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words |
| asyndeton | deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses (ex:I came, i saw, i conquered") |
| polysyndeton | device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythem and to create emphasis. |
| conflict | term that describes the tension between opposing forces in a work of literature. |
| detail | facts revealed by the author or speaker that support the attitude or tone in a piece of poetry or prose. |
| diction | word choice intended to convey a certain effect. |
| Flashback | scene that interrupts the action of a work to show a previous event. |
| Imagery | consists of words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively by appealing scenes |
| personification | giving an animal, or object human-like qualities |
| direct characterization | in literature and drama, the method of character development in which the author simply tells what the character is like |
| Juxtaposition | poetic and rhetorical device in which normally device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are place next to one another, often creating an effect of suprise and wit. |
| Metaphor | explicit comparison between2 unlike things |
| Motif | term that describes a pattern or strand if imagery or symbolism in a work of literature. |
| Symbol | use of any object, person, place, or action that both hasa meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself. |
| Simile | explicit comparison between2 unlike things signaled by the use LIKE or ASS |
| Onomatopeoia | refers to the use of words whose sound reinforces their meaning. |
| Point of View | perspective from which a narrative is told. |
| Pun | play on meaning of words |
| Repetition | device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more thaan once to enhance rhythemand create emphasis. |
| Rhetorical shift/turn | a change or movement in a piece resulting from an epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, character, or the reader. |
| Setting | time & place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem take place. |
| Situational irony | occurs when a situtation turns out differently fomr what one would normally expect. |
| dramatic irony | occurs when a character/speaker says or does something that has different meanings from what he thinks it means. |
| verbal irony | occurs when a speaker/narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite |
| theme | central message of literary work. |
| tone | the writer's or speaker's attitude toward a subject, character, or audience, and it is conveyed through the author's choice of words and detail. |
