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Literary Terms
Literary Terms and Definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning |
| alliteration | The use of a repeated consonant sound, usually at the beginning of a series of words |
| allusion | A reference to someone or something that is well known |
| analogy | A comparison of two things, often used to introduce or explain something unfamiliar |
| anecdote | A short personal story, usually one that illustrates a point |
| antagonist | The major character opposing the main character, often a villain |
| characterization | The method used by a writer to reveal the personality of a character |
| climax | The decisive turning point in the balance of forces in a story |
| conflict | The person or force that opposes the protagonist; may be internal or external |
| diction | Choice of words |
| dramatic irony | A contradiction is happening that the audience knows, but the character does not |
| exposition | The beginning the story that introduces the tone, setting, characters, and conflict |
| falling action | In a plot, this usually shows the reverse in the balance of forces after the climax |
| figurative language | Devices such as metaphor, simile, repetition, personification, and imagery |
| flashback | A scene in a work that interrupts the action in order to show an earlier event |
| foreshadowing | The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest what the action is to come |
| genre | A literary type or form |
| hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration |
| imagery | A group of words in a literary work that creates a sensory picture in the mind’s eye |
| metaphor | A comparison by calling one item by another item with similar characteristics |
| mood | The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work |
| narrative | A literary representation of an event of a story – the text itself |
| onomatopoeia | A word intended to simulate the actual sound of the thing or action it describe |
| oxymoron | A phrase in which the words are contradictory |
| paradox | A phrase that appears to be contradictory, but actually contains basic truth |
| parallelism | The use of elements that are grammatically similar in structure, sound, or meaning |
| pathos | Something that evokes a feeling of pity or sympathy |
| personification | Assigning human attributes to something nonhuman |
| plot | The main elements that structure the story |
| point of view | The perspective from which a story is presented to a reader |
| protagonist | The main character, usually the hero |
| resolution | The moment in which the conflict ends and the outcome of the action is revealed |
| rhetoric | The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing |
| satire | Ridicule of a subject with the intent to show or solve a problem |
| setting | The time and place in which the events in a story occur |
| simile | A comparison using “like” or “as” or “seems” in which two unlike things are compared |
| structure | The logical way in which a text is organized to make sense for the reader |
| style | A manner of expression in literature, may characterize a philosophy or pattern |
| symbol | A character, action, setting, or object representing something else in the story |
| theme | The main idea of a piece of literature, the central message |
| tone | The author’s unique manner of expression, the author’s voice |
| verbal irony | A contradiction is happening in what is said or intended to mean |
| aphorism | A concise, witty saying that expresses an observation or truth about life |
| apostrophe | The speaker directly addresses an absent person, god, or quality as if it could respond |
| archetype | A pattern that is repeated, or a perfect example, of a person, plot, or image |
| assonance | The repetition of similar vowel sounds in words that are close together |
| connotation | All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests |
| denotation | The literal, dictionary definition of a word |
| elegy | A poem that mourns the death of a person or is sorrowful about something lost |
| epic | A long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of an archetype hero on a quest |
| epigram | A clever saying that summarizes the message of a story or person’s life |
| epithet | A descriptive saying that is used to characterize a person, place, or thing |
| couplet | Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit |
| stanza | An arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem |
| antonym | A word with the opposite meaning |
| synonym | A word with a similar meaning |
| dialect | The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons |
| pun | A play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning |
| refrain | A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song--these lines repeat at regular intervals, sometimes with minor changes in the wording |
| soliloquy | A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone |
| aside | A few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words |
| understatement | The presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is |
| unreliable narrator | A storyteller or character who describes what he witnesses accurately, but misinterpets those events because of faulty perception, personal bias, or limited understanding |
Created by:
dalpe
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