| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words |
| Allusion | A reference, usually oblique or faint, to another thing, idea, or person |
| Diction | An author's choice of words |
| Figurative Language | All uses of language that imply an imaginative comparison |
| Foreshadowing | A purposeful hint placed in a work of literature to suggest what may occur later in the narrative |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used to achieve emphasis |
| Situational Irony | When a situation produces and outcome that is the opposite of what is expected |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared directly |
| Onomatopoeia | An effect created by words that have sounds that reinforce their meaning |
| Oxymoron | Two contradictory words in one expression |
| Paradox | A seeming contradiction that in fact reveals some truth |
| Personification | A figure of speech in which ideas or objects are described as having human qualities or personalities |
| Point of View | The particular perspective from which a story is told |
| Satire | To ridicule or mock ideas, persons, events, or doctrines |
| Simile | A commonly used figure of speech that compares one thing with another using the words "like" or "as" |
| Theme | The central idea or message |
| sonnet | Fourteen-line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes. |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| free verse | Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme |
| fable | a short moral story (often with animal characters) |
| parable | a short narrative designed to teach a moral lesson |
| hubris | excessive pride |
| iambic pentameter | ten-syllable lines in which every second syllable is stressed |
| protagonist | the main character |
| antagonist | someone who gets in the way of the protagonist |
| flat character | this character seems to possess only one or two personality traits – little or no background is revealed |
| round character | this character is fully developed – the writer reveals good and bad traits as well as background |
| static character | a character that does not change from the beginning of the story to the end |
| dynamic character | one whose character changes in the course of the play or story |
| verbal irony | A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant |
| dramatic irony | occurs when another character(s) and/or the audience know more than one or more characters on stage about what is happening |
| exposition | the beginning of the story |
| climax | the decisive moment in a novel or play |
| resolution/denouement | where the conflict or problem is solved |
| archetype | an original model on which something is patterned (ex. trickster, underdog, etc.) |
| 1st person narrator | narrator is a charcter in the story, expect to hear "I, me, we, and our" |
| 3rd person limited | when the narrator is telling the story about one character that is not him/herself and is limited to the knowledge of that character |
| 3rd person omniscient | A method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story. |
| fiction | a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact |
| non-fiction | Writing that is factual, not creative or fictional. |
| narrative | The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events. |
Combine with other sets
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