Repetition of
the same or very
similar consonant sounds in words
that are close together in a poem.
Alliteration
Allusion
The most commonly
Reference to a statement, a
referencedmovie of all time? person, a place, or an event from
literature, history, religion,
mythology, politics, sports, science
or pop culture.
Analogy
Life is like a
Very brief account of an incident; a
little story told to make a point
Anecdote
Argument
Comparison made between two
things to show how they are alike in
some respects.
The research paper
Form of persuasion that uses reason
to try to lead a reader or listener to
think or act in a certain way.
Words that are spoken by a
character in a play to the audience
or to another character but that are
not supposed to overheard by the
others on stage
Aside
Assonance
True, I do like Sue.
Author
Repetition of similar vowel sounds
that are followed by different
consonant sounds, especially in
words that are close together in a
poem.
Writer of a literary work
George Orwell, Elie
Weisel, Dante
Autobiography
Dreams from my Father
A story of the writer’s own life
-guess that author!
Song that tells a story.
Ballad
Country/folk songs are
often ballads; Bob
Dylan’s “The Hurricane”;
Bob Marley–
“Redemption Song”
A story of a person’s life, written or
told by another person
Biography
Ben Franklin had one
written about him by
Walter Isaacson titled An
American Life.
Blank verse
consistent meter with 10 syllables in each
line (pentameter); where, unstressed
syllables are followed by stressed ones
and five of which are stressed but do not
rhyme; also known as un-rhymed iambic
pentameter. (Example on Google Chrome)
Character
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic
pentameter
Roles played in a story, poem, or
play
Pick your favorite!
Moment of great emotional
intensity or suspense in a plot.
Climax
The turning point in a
story
Comedy
In general, a story that ends
happily.
The Divine Comedy
Comic relief
Comic scene or event that breaks
up a serious play or narrative
Comic relief in Romeo
and Juliet?
Struggle or clash between
opposing characters or opposing
forces
Conflict
Man vs. ________
Connotation
All the meanings, associations, or
emotions that a word suggests
Negative, neutral,
positive
Two consecutive lines of poetry
that rhyme
Couplet
Puppy knows best
It’s time to rest
Type of writing intended to create
a mood or emotion or to re-create
a person, place, thing, event, or
experience using senses and
adjectives to help
Description
Creates a mental
picture for the reader
Dialect
Way of speaking that is
characteristic of a particular region
or a particular group of people
A writer’s or speaker’s choice of
words
Diction
Coming up next…
Drama
Story that is written to be acted
for an audience
Oedipus Rex
Epic
Epithet
The Odyssey
Long story told in elevated language
(usually poetry), which relates the
great deeds of a larger-than-life
hero who embodies the values of
a particular society
Adjective or descriptive phrase
that is regularly used to
characterize a person, place, or
thing
Essay
The 5-paragraph essay
Exposition
Short piece of nonfiction that
examines a single subject from a
limited point of view
Type of writing that explains,
gives information, defines, or
clarifies an idea
Fable
The Tortoise and the
Hare; Aesop’s fables
Figure of Speech
or
Figurative
Language
Very brief story in prose or verse
that teaches a moral, or a
practical lesson about how to get
along in life.
Word or phrase that describes
one thing in terms of another and
is not meant to be understood on
a literal level
(metaphor, simile,
personification)
Scene in a movie, play, short story,
novel, or narrative poem that
interrupts the present action
to flash backward and tell what
happened at an earlier time
Flashback
Lost
Foil
a character who contrasts with
another character in order to
highlight particular qualities of the
other character.
Fables
Folktale
Fairy tales
Story that has no known author
and was originally passed on from
one generation to another by word
of mouth.
Old wives' tale
Foreshadowing
The use of clues to hint at events
that will occur later in a plot
Free verse
Poetry that does not have a
regular meter or rhyme scheme
Haiku
Japanese verse form consisting of
three lines and seventeen syllables
(five in the first line, seven in the
second, and five in the third).
Figure of speech that uses
exaggeration to express strong
emotion or to create a comic
effect
Hyperbole
Iambic
pentameter
Line of poetry that contains five
iambs (unstressed, stressed syllables)
and, therefore, ten syllables
Expression that means something
different from the literal meaning
of each word
Idiom
Language that appeals to the
senses; often used in poetry
Imagery
Inversion
Not for one moment did Reversal of the normal word
she hesitate.
order of a sentence
S? V? Predicate?
The difference between
expectation and reality-between
what is said and what is really
meant, between what is expected
to happen and what really does
happen, or between what
appears to be true and
what is really true.
Irony
Poetry that does not tell a story
but is aimed only at expressing a
speaker’s emotions or thoughts
Lyric poetry
Figure of speech that makes a
comparison between two unlike
things, in which one thing
becomes another thing without
the use of the word like, as,
than, or resembles
Metaphor
Meter
AR-tist, or ar-TIST
SYL-a-ble or syl-A-ble
Generally regular pattern of
stressed and unstressed
syllables in poetry
Myth
Narration
Nonfiction
Novel
Onomatopoeia
Paradox
Traditional story that is rooted in a
particular culture, is basically
religious, and usually serves to
explain a belief, a ritual, or a
mysterious natural phenomenon
Type of writing or speaking that
tells about a series of related
events
Prose writing that deals with real
people, things, events, and places
Fictional prose narrative usually
consisting of more than fifty
thousand words (around 200 pages)
Use of a word whose sound
imitates or suggests its meaning
"What a pity that
youth must be wasted
on the young." - George Statement or situation that seems
Bernard Shaw
be a contradiction but reveals a
truth
Be cruel to be kind
Repetition of words, phrases, or
sentences that have the same
John likes hiking, fishing,
grammatical structure or that
and hunting.
state a similar idea
Also called parallel structure
Parallelism
Personification
Kind of metaphor in which a
nonhuman thing or quality is
talked about as if it were human
Persuasion
Plot
Poetry
Point of view
Protagonist
Pun
Argument
(research) papers,
editorials, reviews
Type of writing that is aimed at
leading the reader or listener to
think or act in a certain way
Series of related events that make
up a story or drama
Type of rhythmic, compressed
Robert Frost’s “The
language that uses figures of
Road Not Taken”; Edgar speech and imagery to appeal to
Allen Poe’s “The Raven” the reader’s emotions and
imagination
In broad terms there
Vantage point from which a writer
are three possible
tells a story.
points of view:
omniscient, first-person,
and third-person limited
Main character in fiction or
drama
Play on the multiple meanings of
a word or on two words that
sound alike but have different
meanings
Refrain
Typically found at the
Repeated word, phrase, or
end of each verse
line in poems or songs
Repetition of accented vowel
sounds and all sounds following
them, in words that are close
together in a poem.
Rhyme
Rhythm
Satire
Setting
used in songs too
Animal Farm, political
cartoons
Spring 2014, Harmony,
PA
Musical quality in language
produced by repetition
Type of writing that makes fun of
something: a person, group,
humanity, or attitude
The time and place of a story or
play
Short, concentrated, fictional
prose narrative
Short story
“Green Willow”, “The
Wooden People”, “A
Sound of Thunder”
Figure of speech that makes a
comparison between two unlike
things, using a word such as
like, as, than or resembles
Simile
Exaggerated, far-fetched story
that is obviously untrue but is
told as though it should be
believed
Tall tale
Central idea of a work of
literature
Theme
What is the main
message in Oedipus?
Tone
Attitude a writer takes toward
the audience, a subject, or a
character
Sarcastic, sympathetic,
pick an adjective
Play, novel, or other narrative
that depicts serious and important
events to an unhappy end.
Tragedy
Oedipus Rex, The
Tragedy of Romeo and
Juliet
Soliloquy
Sonnet
Speaker
Stanza
Stereotype
Suspense
Symbol
An unusually long speech in
which a character who is
onstage alone expresses his or
her thoughts aloud.
Fourteen-line lyrical poem that is
usually written in iambic
pentameter and that has one of
several rhyme schemes.
Voice that is talking to us in a
poem-the person we imagine to
be speaking, not the poet.
Group of consecutive lines in a
poem that form a single unit.
A stanza may consist of any
number of lines.
Fixed idea or conception of a
character that does not allow
for any individuality. Often
based on racial, social, or
ethnic prejudices.
Uncertainty or anxiety the reader
feels about what is going to
happen next in a story.
Person, place, thing, or event
that stands for itself and for
something beyond itself as
well.