| Term | Definition |
| malapropism | a misuse of words, especially through confusion caused by resemblance in sound |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration for effect |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are compound (ex. thunderous silence) |
| metrical foot | a group of syllables that serves as a unit of measure in poetry. Each foot contains one stressed syllable |
| iamb (n.) (iambic, adj.) | a specific type of metrical foot; a unit of two syllables, one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed |
| iambic pentameter | poetry in which each line consists of five iambic feet. |
| heroic couplet | two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter |
| bard | a tribal poet-singer skilled in composing and reciting verses on heroes and their deeds. (The Bard of Avon - William Shakespeare) |
| soliloquy | a speech in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener |
| pun | a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words |