| Term | Definition |
| understatement | irony that deliberately represents something as less than it is |
| allusion | reference to something the reader knows |
| alliteration | repetition of same or similar initial consonant sounds |
| parallelism | grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of sentence |
| analogy | a comparison of two things |
| loose/cumulative sentence | main clause @ beginning of sentence |
| compound sentence | 2 or more independent clauses |
| balanced sentence | has phrases or clauses that balance each other |
| periodic sentence | main clause @ end of sentence |
| anaphora | repetition of same word at beginning of clauses |
| sentence fragment | piece of a sentence |
| assertions | forceful statement of fact |
| conjectures | guesses |
| assumptions | took for granted |
| declarations | announcement |
| irony | contrast between expectation and reality |
| hyperbole | deliberate extravagant exaggeration |
| tongue-in-cheek | insincerity; irony exaggeration |
| disingenuous | false impression |
| paradox | an apparent contradiction that asserts truth |
| oxymoron | form of paradox that combines opposite terms into an expression |
| euphemism | mild expression substitute for something too harsh |
| conceit | elaborate extended metaphor |
| simile | comparison of two unlike things w/ "like" or "as" |
| metaphor | comparison of two unlike things w/o "like" or "as" |
| personification | kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects human characteristics |
| synecdoche | form of metaphor where part represents whole |
| direct address | name of person speaking to stated |
| rhetorical questions | question that has no answer |
| repetition | repeating |
| cynicism | belief that people are motivated selfishly |
| mockery | ridicule |
| bitterness | harsh due to past experience |
| free verse | poetry w/o regular meter/rhyme |
| moralism | teaching a moral lesson |
| syntax | arrangement of words; order of grammatical elements |
| foreshadowing | use hints and clues to suggest future |
| symbolism | the use of object that stands for something larger than itself |
| apostrophe | speaking to absent/dead as if present |
| onomatopoeia | use of words that mimic sounds |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds |
| alliteration | repetition of similar initial consonant sounds |
| consonance | repetition of consonant sound (not necessarily @ beginning of words) |
| lyric | type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and expression of feeling |
| narrative | poem that tells a story |
| epic | long narrative poem that records adventure of hero |
| sonnet | 14 line poem in iambic pentameter |
| allusion | reference to something the reader knows |
| end rhyme | rhyme @ ends of lines |
| internal rhyme | rhyme within the line |
| end stopped line | pause or stop @ end of line (punctuation |
| enjambment | runon; line continues into another line |
| meter | measured pattern of rhythmic accent |
| foot | metrical unit composed of stress/unstressed syllables |
| blank verse | line of poetry/prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| loose/cumulative | main clause @ beginning |
| periodic | main clause @ end |
| balanced | phrases/clauses balance each other out |
| juxtaposition | normally unassociated ideas/words placed next to each other |
| anaphora | repetition of same word at beginning of successive clauses |
| epanalepsis | repetition of word at end of clause that occurred at beginning of clause |
| asyndeton | deliberate omission of conjunctions in series |
| epistrophe | repetition of same word at ends of successive clauses |
| rhetorical fragment | sentence fragment used deliberately |
| ellipsis | deliberate omission of words implied |