Homework: Learn the following key terms for
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Alliteration: repetition of a sound at the beginning of words, e.g. river rushing rapidly
Ambiguity: the effect of a word or phrase that has more than one possible meaning
Antagonist: someone who opposed to the protagonist.
Aside: a line or two addressed to the audience by a character in a play.
Assonance: repetition of a vowel sound within words, e.g. how now brown cow.
Caesura: a pause in a line of poetry, usually shown by a punctuation mark.
Cliché: a phrase or opinion that is over-used and obvious.
Colloquial language: informal language, the sort of language used in conversation; may include dialect words
or phrases.
Connotation: a meaning that is suggested by the use of a word or phrase because of what is associated with
it, e.g. red might indicate danger.
Couplet: a pair of lines in poetry.
Dialect: words or phrases particular to a region or an area.
Dialogue: the kind of words and phrases used, e.g. formal diction, violent diction, technical diction.
Dramatic irony: irony of situation, where the audience knows more that the character.
Elegy: A poem of mourning originally for a friend or well-known figure. It can also be a poem that reflects on
death and passing time in a melancholy mood.
Elision: Running a word into others, e.g. “fish ‘n chips”
End-stopped: brought to an end, when a line of poetry ends at the end of a sentence or clause (as opposed
to enjambment)
Enjambment: when a clause or sentence runs from one line of poetry to another, i.e. not stopping at the end
of the line.
Exclamations: show anger, shock, horror, surprise and joy, e.g. ”We won!”
Eye rhyme (or sight rhyme): where words look as though they rhyme but do not, e.g. bear/fear.
Genre: a specific type of writing, with its own conventions, e.g. detective story, romance, science fiction.
Half rhyme: an “imperfect” rhyme, where the consonants agree but the vowels don not, e.g. swans/stones.
Hyperbole: exaggeration
Imagery: “painting a picture” in words, using descriptive language, metaphors or similes.
Imperatives: commands or instructions, e.g. “Don’t do that!” or “fry for ten minutes”
Irony and sarcasm: the use of words to imply the opposite of their meaning.
Juxtaposition: putting words or phrases (often contrasting) next to each other.
Lineation: arrangement in lines that are stopped at the end (end-stopping).
Litotes: an understatement made by denying the opposite of something (a type of irony), e.g.”no means
feat” or “not averse to a drink.”
Metaphor: an image created by referring to something as something else, e.g. “an army of nettles.”
Metre: the formal arrangement of a poem’s rhythm e.g. iambic pentameter.
Narrative: a story or an account of something.
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Narrator: the person who tells a story.
First person narrator: a narrator who is present in the story, using the pronoun “I”.
Intrusive narrator: a narrator who gives his/her opinion during a third person narrator.
Naïve narrator: a narrator who does not understand what is going on
Omniscient narrator: a narrator who knows everything and can tell us about the thoughts and feelings of all
the characters.
Unreliable narrator: a narrator who may not be telling the truth.
Onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like what it describes. E.g., splash, clang, click.
Oxymoron: two contradictory words placed together, e.g. ‘cold fire’, ‘bitter sweet’.
Paradox: a statement that is contradictory or seems to be nonsensical, but is true, e.g. ‘to gain peace, they
went to war’.
Pathetic fallacy: when the surroundings (e.g. the weather) reflect the mood of a character.
Pathos: the emotional quality of a text or part of it, causing feelings of pity, sympathy or sadness in the
reader.
Persona: a ‘voice’ or character adopted by a writer writing in the first person.
Personification: writing about an object or animal or idea as if it were a person, giving it human qualities,
e.g., ‘the wind whispered’, ’time will not wait for us.’
Polemic: a written attack on an opinion or policy.
Protagonist: the main character.
Quatrain: a set of four lines of poetry.
Rhetorical questions: a question that does not require an answer, used to make the listener think about the
issue.
Rhythm: the beat of the writing, especially in poetry – fast or slow, regular or irregular.
Simile: a direct comparison of one thing to another, using the words ‘as’. ‘like’ or ‘than’, e.g., ‘as big as a
house’, ‘like an angry lion’, ‘faster than a speeding bullet’, normally stressing one key similarity.
Satire: writing that makes fun of people or society in order to criticise them.
Sibilance: the repetition of ‘hissing’ sounds such as s, sh and zh.
Soliloquy: a speech addressed to the audience by a character in a play, telling the audience what he/she
really thinks.
Sonnet: a poem, usually a love poem, consisting of 14 lines.
Standard English: the conventional use of words and grammar in the English language, used in formal
writing.
Structure: how a text or story is organised and arranged.
Stanza: a division in a poem; the equivalent of a paragraph in prose.
Superlatives: words that express the best of something. They usually end in “est” or have “most” before
them, e.g., ‘happiest’, ‘biggest’, ‘most beautiful.’
Symbols and symbolism: a symbol is an object that represents an idea or feeling, e.g., a dove symbolises
peace.
Tone: the overall feeling or aptitude of the writing, e.g., formal, informal, sad, playful, angry, ironic.
Verse: Poetry. The word is also used as an alternative to ‘stanza’.
A* Tip
It is useful to be able to use these terms with confidence, but remember that you should always explain the effect a
technique has on the reader ( you).