| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allegory | extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. |
| allusion | brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or ficticious, or to a work of art |
| alliteration | repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words |
| analogy | comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds as in consonance. |
| characterization | method used by a writer to develop a character |
| conflict | struggle found in fiction |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, as in assonance. |
| euphemim | the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener |
| mood | emotional attitude the author takes towards hir subject |
| metaphor | comparison of two unlike things using the verb "to be" and not using like or as as in a simile |
| imagery | language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. |
| irony | implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| stanza | a unified group of lines in poetry |
| paradox | reveals a kind of truth which at first seems contradictory |
| tone | is the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective |
| simlie | comparison of two unlike things using like or as. Related to metaphor |
| verse | is a line of poetry. |
| onomatopoeia | is a word that imitates the sound it represents |
| aubade | song of the dawn, usually linked with the motif of waking lovers and their reluctant parting |
| ballad | a story told in song, usually by an impersonal narrator and in a condensed form |
| epic | a long narrative poem written in an elevated style |
| dramatic monologue | a species of lyric poem in which the speaker is a persona created by the poet |
| ode | long lyric lyric poem which deals with a serious subject in an elevated style |
| heroic couplet | lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme in pairs |
| personification | the attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract concepts |
| narrator | the character who is telling the story, or is assumed to be speaking in a poem or novel |
| protagonist | the character with whom the reader is meant to be chiefly concerned; she or he is the main character, who, whether sympathetic or not, is the focus of the plot |
| ambiguity | the exploitation for artistic purposes of language |
| humour | used to refer to anything comical in literature; in terms of characters, it includes their appearance, behaviour, and speech |
| iambic | a foot consisting of an unaccented and accented syllable |
| trochaic | foot consisting of an accented and unaccented syllable |
| Anapestic | a foot consisting of two unaccented syllables and an accented syllable |
| Spondee | a foot consisting of two accented syllables, as in the word heartbreak |
| polysendeton | the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses |
| zeugma | two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them |
| tautology | repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence |
| euphemism | substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant |
| hypallage | grammatical agreement of a word with another word which it does not logically qualify |
| hendiadys | use of two words connected by a conjunction, instead of subordinating one to the other, to express a single complex idea |
| climax | arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power |
| brachylogy | general term for abbreviated or condensed expression, of which asyndeton and zeugma are types |
| syllepsis | use of a word with two others, with each of which it is understood differently |
| vernacular | expressed or written in the native language of a place |
| meter | A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry |
| novel | A fictional prose work of substantial length |
| parable | A brief story, told or written in order to teach a moral lesson |
| quatrain | four-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed |
| similie | exaggeration without the use of as or like |
Combine with other sets
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