| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Alliteration | repetion of initial constant sound |
| Antagonist | opponent |
| Character | the inherent complex of attributes that determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions |
| Characterization | the act of describing distinctive characteristics or essential features |
| Climax | the highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding |
| Conflict | opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot) |
| Connotation | what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression |
| Couplet | a pair of rhyming lines |
| Denouement | the final resolution of the main complication of a literary or dramatic work |
| Dialect | the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people |
| exposition | an account that sets forth the meaning or intent of a writing or discourse |
| fiction | a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact |
| figurative language | Writing or speech that is used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things, [examples are metaphor, simile, and personification. |
| flashbaxk | a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story |
| Foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot |
| Hero | the principal character in a play or movie or novel or poem |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration |
| Irony | incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs |
| Metaphor | comparison not using like or as |
| Mood | a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling |
| Myth | a traditional story accepted as history |
| Narrative | consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| Paradox | a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. |
| Personification | the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc. |
| Plot | a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal) |
| Protagonist | main character |
| satire | witty language used to convey insults or scorn |
| simile | comparison using like or as |
| Stanza | an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem. |
| style | a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period |
| subplot | a minor plot that relates in some way to the main story |
| suspense | the quality of the story that makes the reader curious and excited about what will happen next |
| symbol | something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible |
| theme | a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work |
| tone | the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author |
Combine with other sets
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