| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Pun | a play on words involving the use of words with similar sounds but different meanings (collar, color), words with 2+ meanings (plain), or words with the same sound but different meanings |
| conflict | struggle between opposing forces; any problem that must be solved |
| foil | unrhymed poetry that has a regular rhythm and line length, especially iambic pentameter |
| setting | the time and place of the story |
| imagery | a word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell |
| blank verse | unrhymed poetry that has a regular rhythm and line length, especially iambic pentameter |
| mood | the atmosphere suggested by the structure and style of the poem |
| flashback | presents events of the past in the midst of a story in the present |
| personification | giving a non-human the characteristics of a human |
| flashback | presents events of the past in the midst of a story in the present |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms |
| irony | the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions |
| theme | the message, central concern, or insight into life revealed in a literary work |
| tragic hero | literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy |
| point of view | the relationship between the narrator and the story he/she is telling - the perspective from which the story is told |
| tone | the attitude toward the subject and audience conveyed by the language and rhythm of the speaker in a literary work |
| understatement | a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else |
| satire | the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. |
| narrator | the speaker or character who tells the story |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| allusion | a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art |
| Antagonist | a character or force in conflict with the main character |
| plot | the series of related actions or events in a literary work |
| soliloquy | a character speaks alone on stage to allow his/her thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience |
| free verse | no fixed meter or rhyme |
| meter | regularized rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables; accents occur at approx. equal intervals of time |
| foreshadowing | an author's use of hints or clues to suggest events that will occur later in the story |
| dramatic irony | occurs when another character(s) and/or the audience know more than one or more characters on stage about what is happening |
| simile | a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike subjects using like or as |
| hyperbole | exaggeration, overstatement |
| protagonist | the main character in a literary work |
| climax | the point of highest interest, the conflict must be resolved one way or another or a character begins to take action to end the conflict |
| aside | in drama, lines spoken by a character in an undertone or aloud directly to the audience |
| monologue | a prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker |
| metaphor | implied or direct comparison |
| style | The manner of expression of a particular writer |
| iambic pentameter | a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents |
Combine with other sets
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