| Term | Definition |
| Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds in neighboring words |
| Allusion | An implied or indirect reference in literature to a familiar person, place or event |
| Purpose | The author's intent either to inform, teach, entertain, persuade, or convince their audience to do or not do something. |
| Characterization | The method an author uses to reveal characters and their personalities |
| Conflict | The struggle between opposing forces in literature |
| Dialogue | conversations between people in a literary work |
| Figurative Language | Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special feeling or effect |
| First Person Point of View | A method of storytelling that relates events using the word "I" and telling the events as they are perceived by a single character. |
| Flashback | A device used in literature to present action that occurred before the beginning of the story. |
| Foreshadowing | A device used to create hints of events to come |
| Free Verse | Poetry that lacks regular meter and rhyme |
| Hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| Imagery | Words that appeal to the senses |
| Irony | the use of word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or usual meaning. |
| Metaphor | A comparison between two unlike things |
| Mood | the prevailing emotions of a work |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sounds express their meaning or sense. |
| Personification | Giving human qualities to non human things |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sounds express their meaning or sense. |
| Plot | the sequence in which the author arranges the events of the story. The structure often includes rising action, climax, falling action and resolution |
| Satire | A literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness |
| Setting | The time and place in which a story unfolds |
| Simile | A comparison of two unlike things using words such as like or as |
| Symbol | A device in literature where an object represents an idea |
| Theme | A major idea that represents an important message or insight of the author. |
| Third Person Point of View | A perspective in literature that presents the events of the story from outside any single character's perspective using the words "he" or "she". |
| Tone | The author's attitude towards the subject |