Literary Term
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Literary Term
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Literary Terms 1-100
Literary Term | Definition |
---|---|
alliteration | repetition of initial consonants |
allusion | reference to a well-known work |
ambiguity | vagueness |
antagonist | opposes the main character |
archetype | literay sterotype |
aside | character's thoughts out loud |
assonance | repetition of vowel sounds |
ballad | song-like poem; a type of lyric poem |
blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
characterization | the way an author reveals a character |
direct characterization | the author tells you about the character |
indirect characterization | you must infer the character traits |
comedy | funny work |
concrete poetry | poetry shaped like its theme |
conflict | problems among characters |
internal conflict | problems within a character |
external cinflict | problems between characters |
connotation | perceived meaning of a word |
consonance | repetition of consonants at end |
couplet | two rhymed lines of poetry |
heroic couplet | two rhymed lines in Iambic Pentameter |
denotation | literal meaning of a word |
denouement | "order restored" |
dialect | the sound of speech |
diction | choice of words |
drama | serious/staged work |
epic | long narrative poem about a hero |
epithet | nickname |
essay | short work of non-fiction |
euphemism | renaming something (more pleasant) |
exposition | the beginning/introduction |
fable | tale with a moral |
fantasy | tale based on unrealistic elements |
farce | comedy (belly laughs) |
figurative language | language not to be taken literally |
flashback | thinking back about an earlier event |
foil | opposite characters |
folk tale | tale particular to a culture |
foreshadowing | a hint about something to come |
free verse | no rhyme, no meter |
genre | category of literature |
haiku | 3 line Japanese poem (5,7,5) |
hyperbole | exaggeration, oversatement |
iambic pentameter | ten syllables per line (every other stressed) |
image/imagery | mental picture |
irony | real differs from supposed |
dramatic irony | audience knows more than characters |
situational irony | situation is different from supposed |
verbal irony | not saying what you really mean |
jargon | specialized language |
metaphor | comparison with no like or as |
meter | mesurable rhythm of a poem |
monologue | speech by one character |
mood | feeling a work creates in the reader |
motif | element repeated throughout the work |
myth | story created to explain a phenomenon |
narrator/point of view | eyes through which a story is told |
1st | "I" point of view |
3rd | objective "fly on the wall" narrator |
3rd limited | limited to one persons thoughts |
omniscient | all-seeing, all-knowing narrator |
onomatopoeia | sound word, like "buzz" |
oxymoron | opposite words put together for emphasis |
paradox | contradiction |
parallelism | same word order, same form |
paraphrase | to put into your own words |
parody | a funny version of something serious |
personification | animating something inanimate |
plot | chain of events in a story |
poetry | literature written in verse |
narrative poem | poem that tells a story |
dramatic poem | poem in which the author is not the speaker |
lyric poem | poem that has elements of a song |
prose | not poetry; written in paragraphs |
protagonist | the main character |
pun | play on words |
refrain | repeated stanze of poetry |
repetition | repeated for emphasis |
rhyme | words with same vowel sound |
rhythm | beat (audible) of a work |
satire | making fun for political change |
Science Fiction | a story based on technology (future) |
setting | time and place of a story |
short story | brief work of fiction |
simile | comparison using like or as |
soliloquy | speech said alone on stage |
sonnet | 14 line poem |
stanza | the paragraph of poetry |
stereotype | generalization about person/group |
stream of consciousness | follows thoughts as they happen |
structure | the form of a poem/story |
symbol | something concrete that represents soemthing abstract |
synesthesia | stimulating more than one sense |
syntax | word order |
theme | the meaning of a work |
tone | author's attitude/choice of words |
tragedy | ends unhappily/often in death |
understatement | not giving emphasis to a subject |
malapropism | using the wrong big word |