| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Allusion | An indirect or passing reference to some event person place or artistic work the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity with what is thus mentioned. |
| Analogy | A comparison of two things that are alike in some respects. |
| Anecdote | A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature |
| Aphorism | A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief |
| Apostrophe | address to an absent or imaginary person |
| Colloquialism | the use of informal expressions appropriate to everyday speech |
| Syntax | the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences |
| Diction | the writer's choice of words; an important element in the writer's voice or style |
| Dystopia | a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation, oppression or terror |
| Hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor |
| Metaphor | a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity. Does not use "like" or "as" |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. |
| Personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes |
| Point of View | The narrative perspective from which a literary work is presented to the reader. Main types are 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person. |
| Synecdoche | figure of speech in which a part represents a whole or a whole represents a part |
| Alliteration | the repetition of sounds, most often consonant sounds, at the beginnings of words. |
| Simile | a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
| Metonymy | a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated |
| Paradox | a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradicting, but is nevertheless true, either literally or figuratively |
| Assonance | the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words |
| Consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds before and after different vowels |
| Cacophony | A disagreeable, harsh, or discordant sound or combination of sounds or tones. |
| Connotation | The emotional implications and associations that words may carry |
| Denotation | dictionary definition of a word |
| Epiphany | a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. OR a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight. |
| Antecedent | the word or words to which the pronoun refers |
| Euphemism | an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive |
| Prose | the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from verse. |
| Mood | The feeling evoked in the reader by a literary work or passage. Often can be described in one word such as light-hearted, frightening, or despairing |
| Utopia | An imaginary place of ideal perfection |
| Imagery | Sensory details in a work; the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, call to mind an idea, or describe an object |
| Irony | A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. |
| Onomatopoeia | A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes |
| Verse | Poetic or metrical language |
| Tone | The attitude a literary work takes toward its subject or theme. It reflects the narrator's attitude. |
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