| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Allegory | A story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meaning |
| Allusion | A reference in one literary work to a character or theme of another work |
| Ambiguity | A statement which can contain two or more meanings. |
| Analogue | A comparison between two similar things. In literature, a work which resembles another work. |
| Anecdote | A very short tale told by a character in a literary work |
| Aphorism | A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation. |
| Apostrophe | A figure of speech where the speaker speaks directly to something or someone not present. |
| Antecedent | The noun that a pronoun replaces |
| Antithesis | Contrasting ideas or images through the use of parallel structure. |
| Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work |
| Ballad | A story in poetic form, often about tragic love |
| Blank verse | A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| Cacophony | An unpleasant combination of sounds |
| Euphony | A pleasant combination of sounds |
| Canto | A subdivision of an epic poem |
| Carpe Diem | "Seize the Day" |
| Characterization | The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character. |
| Chiasmus | Two phrases with the same syntax in different order. |
| Colloquialism | Informal or slang expression |
| Conceit | A far fetched simile or metaphor that is sustained. |
| Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds. |
| Elegy | A lyric poem lamenting death |
| Epigraph | A brief quotation which appears at the beginning of a literary work. |
| Epithet | A word or phrase before/after a name which described a character (ie: far-smiting) |
| Eulogy | A formal statement of praise |
| Euphemism | A mile word of phrase which substitutes for another which is less desirable |
| Free Verse | Unrhymed poetry with lines of varying lengths. |
| Hyperbole | An overstatement |
| Litotes | Two negatives that make a positive, a form of understatement |
| Meiosis | Understatement |
| In Medias Res | Starting a narrative in the middle of action |
| Metonymy | A word represents something else it suggests (ie: kleenex and tissues) |
| Ode | A poem in praise of something divine or expressing some noble idea. |
| Parable | A brief story, told or written in order to teach a moral lesson |
| Parallel Structure | A repetition of sentences using the same structure. |
| Pathetic Fallacy | A fallacy of reason suggesting that nonhuman phenomena act from human feelings. |
| Sonnet | A poem of fourteen lines and a fixed rhyme scheme. |
| Symbolism | A figure of speech in which an object represents an idea. |
| Synecdoche | A part of something represents a whole (ie: fifty head of cattle) |
| Synaesthesia | One sensory experience described in terms of another sense. (ie: I tasted the blue) |
| Trope | A figure of speech that is not literal. (ie: metaphor, simile, personification) |
| Zeugma | The same verb is used in two different ways in the same sentence. |
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