| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant or vowel sounds in two or more successive or nearby words. |
| Allusion | A reference to a well-known person, place, event, work of art, myth, or religion. |
| Antagonist | A character, institution, group, or force that is in conflict with the protagonist. |
| Archetype | Primordial images and symbols that occur in literature, myth, religion, and folklore. |
| Assonance | The repetition in vowel sounds intwo or more words that do not rhyme. |
| Climax | The high point in the plot, after which there is falling action. May coincide with crisis |
| Conflict | The struggle between characters and other characters, forces of nature, or outside forces beyond their control, internal conflict within a character who struggles with moral choices and matters of conscience. |
| Consonance | The repetition of a consonant at the end of two or more words. |
| Couplet | A pair of rhyming lines in the same meter |
| Exposition | An interpretation or explanation of a topic |
| Extended Metaphor | A metaphor that is elaborated on and developed in several phrases or sentences. |
| Ellipsis | Three periods (...) that signify the omission of one or more words. |
| Figurative Language | The use of figures of speech to express ideas. |
| epic | A long narrative poem about the adventures of gods or a hero. |
| Falling Action | All action that takes place after the climax |
| .Analogy. | A comparison of two things that are somewhat alike. |
| .Denouement. | The falling action or final revelations in the plot. |
| Foil | A character who, through contrast reveals the characteristics of another character. |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses exaggeration. |
| Irony | The opposite of what is expected. A reality different from appearance. |
| Imagery | The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. Creates images. |
| Inciting incident | Introduces the major conflict of the story. |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech in which one thing is said to be another thing. |
| Personification | A figure of speech that attributes human qualities to an inanimate object. |
| Protagonist | The main character. |
| .Myth. | A fictional tale about gods or heroes. Allusions to Greek, Roman, Norse, and Celtic myths are common on English literature. |
| .Onomatopoeia. | A figure of speech that uses words to imitate sound. |
| .Poetic devices. | Words with harmonious sounds including assonance, consonance, alliteration, repetition, and rhyme. |
| Pun | A play on words |
| .Repetition. | A poetice device that uses the repeating of words, sounds, phrases, or sentences. |
| .Rhyme. | Words with identical sounds, but different spellings. |
| Rhyme Scheme | The pattern of rhyming words. The last word in each line is assigned a letter of the alphabet beginning with a. |
| Rising action | The path of the plot leading to the climax. |
| Resolution | A resolve or determination. |
| .Sensory imagery. | Language that evokes images and triggers memories in the reader of the five senses. |
| Simile | A figure of speech that compares two things that are not alike, using the words like, as, or than. |
| Theme | A central idea. |
| Tragedy | A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. |
| Brackets | Marks — [ ] — resembling parentheses with square corners. Brackets are often used within quotations to distinguish between the quoter's own words and those of the writer being quoted |
| Naked quote | A quote that is not attached to anything |
| Essay | A short nonfiction work about a specific subject. Essays may be narrative, persuasive, descriptive, expository, or argumentative. |
| Epithet | A word or phrase describing a quality of a person, lace, or thing that is repeated throughout a work |
| Absolute bush stroke | Engine smoking, gears grinding, the car went into the parking lot. |
| Appositive brush stroke | The car, a 1936 Ford,went into the parking lot. |
| Participle brush stroke | Sliding on the loose gravel, the car went into the parking lot. |
| Adjectives-out-of-order brush stroke | The car, dented and rusty, went into the parking lot. |
| Active verb brush stroke | the car chugged into the parking lot. |
| In medias res | Technical term for the epic convention of beginning "in the middle of things," rather than at the very start of the story. |
| Homeric simile | A simile used by Homer with the words Just as, and so. |
| Rhapsode | A person that recited epics and poems |
| Arete | The process of achieving greatness |
| Hubris | Thinking you are better than others- puffed up with pride |
| Ate | An act of rashness, a happening because of hubris |
| Nemesis | The retribution of Ate |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace