- Allegory: Writing that has a deeper meaning hidden beneath the obvious one.
- Alliteration: Repetition of sounds at the beginning of words
- Allusion: Referance, without explanation, to previous, well-known literature, character, or common knowledge, assuming the reader is familiar with its implications.
- Antagonist: person who opposes or competes with the main character, hero, heroine; often the villain.
- Character: person or animal that appears in a work of fiction
- Climax: the high point in the plot where the reader is most intrigued and does not yet know the outcome.
- Conflict: opposing elements or characters in a plot
- Connotation: surrounding feelings and associations added to word meaning.
- Denotation: dictionary meaning of a word
- Dialogue: speaking and conversation between characters in stories, play, and in person.
- Epitaph: inscription on tombstone or marker of the dead.
- External Conflict: when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person, nature, society, or fate.
- Fiction: any literature about imaginary events or people.
- First-Person Narration: story told from first person point of view, usually using, "I"
- Flashback: jumping backward in the chronology of a narrative, often through a dream or musing sequence
- Foil: Character opposite or different from the protagonist used to highlight the protagonists traits - incidents or settings may also be used as foils.
- Foreshadow: hints during the narrative about what can/will happen later- can be literal hints or symbolic hints
- Hyperbole: use of extreme exaggeration for effect.
- Idiom: phrase in common use that does not literally mean what it says.
- Imagery: creation of mental pictures by perinent word choice and heightened description.
- Internal Conflict: exists within the mind of the character who is torn between opposing forces.
- Irony: phrases or words with meanings quite different from what are actually stated.
- Metaphor: Comparison of unlike things without using like or as.
- Moral: a lesson the literature is teaching; fables usually teach a lesson about life.
- Mythology: Traditional tales about Goddesses, Gods, heros, and other characters, often telling about the creation of the universe, talking about death, or otherwise philosophically explaining human existance
- Oxymoron: use of paradoxical or opposite words for effect.
- Paradox: contradictory statement that makes sense.
- Personification: literary device where a writer attributes human qualities to object or ideas.
- Plot: sequence of events
- Point of View: Perspective from which the story is written.
- Prose: literature written in sentences and paragraphs, as opposed to poetry or verses.
- Protagonist: main character/ hero/ heroine in a written work.
- Proverb: saying, usually short and generally believed to be true
- Resolution: Clarification, solution, or outcome of the conflict in a story.
- Setting: time and place of a story
- Simile: Comparison of things using like or as.
- Theme/ Thesis: main idea in a piece of literature; topic, or subject
- Tone: mood brought forth by a story, poem, or other writing.