Literary Terms

Terms in this set (45)

A comparison between two things
ex: You are the wind beneath my wings.

A comparison between two things using "like" or "as"
ex: She was as quiet as a mouse.

A deliberate exaggeration
ex: He's so stupid, he thought a quarterback was a refund!

Not true/a made up story

A true story or account

A hint of what is to come later in the story

The most exciting part of the story; the turning point

A play on words

Repeating consonant sounds at the beginning of words

When a character remembers something that happened earlier or before the story started

When and where a story takes place

The main character- usually, but not always, the good guy

A character that goes against the main character - usually the bad guy

Dynamic Character

A character that changes

Static Character

A character that does not changed

A character that we know a lot about

A character that we do not know a lot about

The narrator is a part of the story. "I" is used.

The reader is the narrator and character in the story. "You" is used.

3rd Person Limited POV

The narrator is not a part of the story and knows one character's thoughts and actions "He", "She", "It" are used a lot along with people's names.

3rd Person Omniscient

The narrator is not a part of the story and knows everyone's thoughts and actions "He", "She", "It" are used a lot along with people's names.

Situational Irony

When something unexpected happens (sometimes this is just called "irony")

When the reader knows something that the character does not

What is said and what is meant are two different things

A style of poetry that has no set rhyme or meter

Tracking the rhyming sounds of the last line in a poem by assigning letters

Describing something using the five senses

Unreliable Narrator

A narrator that cannot be trusted to tell what is really happening

A sound spelled out

A struggle between a character and: another character, society, self or nature

An apparent contradiction that is actually true

Using one thing to represent something else

A symbol that remains the same in all time periods and cultures

A story where everything is symbolic

A phrase that has two seemingly opposite words side by side

Spelling words as they are pronounced, not how they should be spelled

The way the writer makes you feel

The way the writer feels about something

A long poem about a hero

Personification

Giving something that is not human, human qualities

A reference to another story, historical event, movie, song, TV show, etc.

A main idea of a story

When one character is on stage revealing their innermost thoughts

Two lines of poetry that are back to back and rhyme

When a character says something on stage, but other people on stage cannot hear what was said

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