| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allusion | a reference to another work of literature, person, or event |
| anectode | a short account of an incident, often humorous; a previously untold, secret account of an incident |
| aphorism | pithy maxim or saying; ADJ. aphoristic |
| apostrophe | a technique by which a writer addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is either dead or absent. |
| ballad | n. Any popular narrative poem, often with epic subject and usually in lyric form. |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| caricature | an exaggerated portrayal of one's features |
| couplet | a pair of rhyming lines |
| denouement | an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot |
| epithet | a descriptive word or phrase |
| exposition | background information on character or events in novel or play |
| foil | anything that serves by contrast to call attention to another thing's good qualities |
| hyperbole | exageration |
| meter | a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry |
| metonymy | symbolism; one thing is used as a substitute for another with which it is closely identified (the White House) |
| oxymoron | Two contradictory words in one expression |
| paradox | a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. |
| pun | a humorous play on words |
| quatrain | a stanza of four lines |
| refrain | a regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song |
| satire | literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness |
| synecdoche | substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versa |
| sonnet | a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme |
| vernacular | the everyday speech of the people (as distinguished from literary language) |
| tragic hero | A literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy |
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