| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Allegory | A story with a hidden meaning or moral beneath it's surface. |
| Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds. |
| Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure. |
| Ambiguous | Capable of many interpretations. |
| Analogy | A comparison explaining a complex idea or concept using a simpler one. |
| Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds. |
| Catharsis | The "cleansing" of an emotion an audience member experiences. |
| Cacophony | Using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds (for noise). |
| Connotation | The implied or suggested, "deeper", meaning of a work. |
| Denotation | The literal "dictionary" meaning. |
| Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words. |
| Couplet | A pair of lines that end in rhyme. |
| Diction | The author's choice of words. |
| Elegy | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. |
| Syntax | Refers to the ordering and structuring of words. |
| Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. |
| Pathetic Fallacy | The attribution of human feelings to natural phenomena. |
| Foreshadowing | An event or statement in a narrative that suggests a larger event to come later. |
| Free Verse | Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. |
| Imagery | Mental picture. |
| Irony | A statement that means opposite of what it seems to mean. |
| Metaphor | A comparison, or analogy that states one thing is another. |
| Simile | Comparing using like or as. |
| Personification | Giving animals, objects, or even ideas "human" qualities. |
| Pathos | Writing that evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy. |
| Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play. |
| Antagonist | The opponent or "bad guy" against the protagonist. |
| Satire | Exposes common character flaws to the cold light of humor. Attempts to improve things by pointing out people's mistakes in the hope that one out in the open, it will be less common. |
| Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone on stage. |
| Tragic Flaw | The weakness of character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise. |
| Synecdoche | Use of a part to represent the whole. |
| Synthesis | Bringing together of two or more conflicting ideas to form a third that includes both parts. |
| Omniscient Narrator | Third person narrator who sees, "like God", into each character's mind. |
| Limited Omniscient Narrator | Third person narrator, who generally reports only what one character sees. |
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