| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Personification | assigning human qualities to inanimate objects or concepts. Wordsworth's "the sea that bares her bosom to the moon." |
| Antithesis | the presentation of two contrasting ideas. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraphs. "To be or not to be . . ." "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times . . ." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country . . ." |
| Oxymoron | a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms. "jumbo shrimp" and "cruel kindness." |
| Sarcasm | bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. It may use verbal irony as a device. |
| Synecdoche | Part as representative of the whole. "All hands on deck" |
| Hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration or overstatement |
| Anaphora | repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. |
| Theme | The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing. |
| Metonomy | A type of metaphor in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. "The White House declared," from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name" |
| Paradox | A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." |
| Onomatopoeia | a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum. |
| Metaphor | a comparison of two unlike things, not using like or as. "Your eyes are stars" |
| Symbol | Anything that represents, stands for, something else. Usually concrete—such as an object, action, character, or scene—that represents something more abstract. |
| Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. |
| Understatement | the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended. |
| Homily | This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice. |
| Euphemism | a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. "He went to his final reward" for "he died." |
| Satire | A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and convention for reform or ridicule. |
| Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." |
| Narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. |
| Ethos | an appeal based on the character/reputation/ credibility of the speaker. |
| Situational Irony | a type of irony in which events turn out the opposite of what was expected. |
| Consonance | Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity. |
| Pathos | an appeal based on emotion. |
| Syllogism | a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion. |
| Logos | an appeal based on logic or reason |
| Verbal Irony | In this type of irony, the words literally state the opposite of the writer's true meaning |
| Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. |
| Denotation | the literal or dictionary meaning of a word |
| Dramatic Irony | In this type of irony, facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or a piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work |
| Parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. |
| Connotation | the interpretive level or a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning. |
| Repetition | The duplication, either exact or approximate, or any element of language, such as sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern. |
| Syntax | The grammatical structure of prose and poetry. |
| Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity |
| Voice | can refer to two different areas of writing. One refers to the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active and passive). The second refers to the total "sound" of the writer's style. |
| Argument | A single assertion or a series of assertions presented and defended by the writer |
| Allusion | A reference contained in a work |
| Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. |
| Stream-of-consciousness | A narrative technique that places the reader in the mind and thought process of the narrator, no matter how random and spontaneous that may be. |
| Allegory | A work that functions on a symbolic level |
| Parallelism | refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. |
| Analogy | a literary device employed to serve as a basis for comparison. It is assumed that what applies to the parallel situation also applies to the original circumstance. In other words, it is the comparison between two different items. |
| Description | The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to re-create, invent, or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that being described. Sometimes an author engages all five senses. |
| Attitude | the relationship an author has toward his or her subject, and/or his or her audience |
| Narration | The purpose of this type of rhetorical mode is to tell the story or narrate an event or series of events. |
| Rhetoric | the principle governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. |
| Third Person Limited | Point of view which presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all remaining characters |
| Third Person Omniscient | Point of view in which an omniscient narrator, with a godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters. |
| Character | those who carry out the action of the plot in literature. Major, minor, static, and dynamic are the types. |
| Colloquialism | Slang in writing, used often to create local color and to provide an informal tone. Twain's Huck Finn |
| Antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers. |
| Thesis | The sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition. |
| Chiasmus | Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. It is often short and summarizes a main idea. |
| Tone | Similar to mood, describes the author's attitude toward his or her material, the audience, or both. |
| Prose | The literary genre that is written in ordinary language and most closely resembles everyday speech. |
| Asyndeton | Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words, speeds up flow of sentence. X, Y, Z as opposed to X, Y, and Z. |
| Point of View | Who tells a story and how it is told. (1st, 2nd, 3rd limited, 3rd omniscient) |
| Deduction | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific example. |
| Mood | the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. (Poe with eerie intensity) |
| Diction | the author's choice of words that creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning |
| Subject | who or what the sentence is about |
| Predicate | tells what the subject is or does |
| Direct Object | the object that receives the direct action of the verb |
| Indirect Object | the object that is the recipient of the action of the verb |
| Predicate noun | Follows a linking verb and defines or renames the subject |
| Predicate adjective | follows a linking verb and describes the subject |
| Pronoun/ antecedent | The antecedent is the word the pronoun replaces |
| Independent clause | expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence |
| Dependent clause | an idea cannot stand alone in a sentence even though it has a subject and a verb |
| Aphorism | short, witty statement of truth |
| Apostrophe | when a speaker address someone/something that isn't there |
| Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. |
| Cliche | an overused saying or idea |
| Understatement | a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said, the opposite of hyperbole |
Combine with other sets
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