| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Abstract Language | Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places. |
| Ad hominem argument | Replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking a characteristic of the person making the claim. |
| Allegory | A work that functions on more than one level: both concrete and symbolic. |
| Allusion | An indirect reference, often to another text or historical event. |
| Ambiguity | Capable of being interpreted in more than one way. |
| Analogy | A literary device employed to serve as a basis for comparison. It is the comparison between two different items. |
| Anaphora | The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses. |
| Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. |
| Annotation | Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographical data. |
| Asyndeton | Leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. |
| Antecedent | The noun to which a later pronoun refers. |
| Antithesis | The presentation of two contrasting images. The ideas are balanced by phrase, clause, or paragraph. |
| Aphorism | A short, astute statement of a general truth. |
| Apostrophe | The speaker or author breaking off and speaking to an imaginary person. |
| Argumentation | A statement put forth and supported by evidence. |
| Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity. |
| Asyndeton | Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are thus emphasized equally. |
| Cacophony | Harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony. |
| Colloquial/Colloquialism | An informal or conversational use of language. |
| Connotation | That which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning. |
| Consonance | Repetition of a consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity. |
| Deduction | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific examples. |
| Denotation | The literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition. |
| Diction | Word choice. |
| Didactic | Intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure an entertainment. |
| Epigraph | The use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. |
| Ethos | The distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution. |
| Euphemism | The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. |
| Euphony | The pleasant, mellifluous presentation of sounds in a literary work. |
| Explication | The act or interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text using close reading and attention to figurative language. |
| Exposition | A setting forth of the meaning or purpose (as of a writing). |
| False analogy | When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them. |
| Figurative language | Language not meant to be taken literally; language that uses figures of speech |
| Figures of speech | Language than contains figures of speech, often creating associations that are imaginative rather than literal. |
| Genre | The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic division of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis. |
| Imagery | Vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses. |
| Induction | The process that moves from a given series of specifics to a generalization. |
| Inference/Infer | The act or process of deriving a conclusion based solely on what one already knows. |
| Invective | An abusive expression or speech. |
| Inversion (anastrophe) | Changing the customary order of words grammatically. |
| Irony | A situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected. |
| Juxtaposition | Placement of two things side by side for emphasis. |
| Logical fallacy | A mistake in reasoning. |
| Logos | An appeal to logic. |
| Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated. |
| Mood | Similar to tone, it is the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling of the work; the atmosphere0. Syntax is also a determiner of this term because sentence strength, length, and complexity affect pacing. |
| Motif | Main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea. |
| Narrative | Retelling an event or series of events. |
| Non sequitur | A statement that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said. |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss". |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms. |
| Pacing | The relative speed with which a story is told. |
| Paradox | A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true. |
| Parallelism | The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns. |
| Parody | A work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. |
| Pathos | An appeal to human emotion, the quality in a work or a portion thereof that makes the reader experience pity, sorrow, or tenderness. |
| Pedantic | Narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned. |
| Periodic sentence | A sentence that begins with dependent phrases and ends with a main clause containing the central meaning. |
| Point of view | In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. |
| Polysyndeton | The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions. |
| Repetition | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| Rhetoric | The study of effective, persuasive language use. |
| Sarcasm | A mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual. |
| Satire | A literary device which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit for the purpose of improving human institutions or humanity |
| Shift | To change place, position, or direction of something. |
| Syllogism | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism is the format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Example: |
| Style | A distinctive manner of expression. |
| Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "wheels" to mean a car. |
| Syntax | The arrangement-the ordering, grouping, and placement-of words within a sentence. |
| Thesis | The main idea of a piece of writing. It presents the author's assertion or claim. The effectiveness of a presentation is often based on how well the writer presents, develops, and supports this. |
| Tone | The speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience. |
| Understatement | Lack of emphasis in a statement or point. |
| Unity (coherence) | Quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle. |
| Wit | Reasoning power, clever expression whether aggressive or harmless. |
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