| Term | Definition |
|---|
| malapropism | a misuse of words, especially through confusion caused by resemblance in sound. |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration for effect |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined (ex. thunderous silence) |
| metrical foot | a group of syllables that serves as a unit of measure in poetry. Each foot contains one stressed syllable. |
| iamb | a specific type of metrical foot; a unit of two syllables, one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed |
| iambic pentameter | poetry in which each line consists of five iambic feet (see above) |
| heroic couplet | two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter |
| blank verse | unrhymed poetry which has five iambic feet per line |
| bard | a tribal poet-singer skilled in composing and reciting verses on heroes and their deeds. (The Bard of Avon-William Shakespeare) |
| deus ex machina | literally “god from the machine”; in Greek/Roman drama the god lowered to the stage by machinery to resolve the conflict and extricate the protagonist from difficult situations. |
| soliloquy | a speech in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. |
| pun | a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words. |
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