5th Grade Reading Vocabulary Words
A weekly, cumulative quiz will be given over these vocabulary words. Students should keep track of when new words
are introduced. They should understand the definition and be able to apply that definition to their reading. For
example, a student should know that setting is where and when a story takes place, and should be able to define the
setting of a reading passage or story.
Date
Term
character
setting
plot
conflict
mood
audience
voice
point of view
fact
opinion
main idea
cause
effect
chronological order
illustrations
foreshadowing
flashback
Definition
persuasion
paraphrasing
Convincing someone to do something
A restatement of a text or passage in another form or other words, often to
clarify meaning
A category of literature, a way to organize and define various types of fiction
vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses ( sight,
hearing, touch, smell, and taste)
genre
imagery
context clues
inference
chart
map
diagram
theme
figurative language
hyperbole
idiom
alliteration
personification
A person in the story
Where and when the story takes place
The events in a story
A problem between characters in the story
The feeling or attitude of the story
Who the story is written to
The writer’s style
The position from which the story is told
Information that can be proven true
A statement that is based on a person’s feelings or beliefs
What the passage is about
An event that makes something else happen
What happens BECAUSE of a certain action or event
The order in which things happen in time
Drawings or pictures
Clues in a story about what is going to happen next
A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal
chronological development of a story
Information in the text that is used to determine the meaning of an unknown
word
A fact or idea that you can conclude based on stated information
A visual display of information
A picture showing the location of certain things
A drawing intended to explain how something works
The lesson or moral of the story
Language that compares, exaggerates, or means something other than what
it first appears to mean in the text
An exaggeration used to emphasize a point
A set expression of two or more words that means something other than the
literal meanings of its individual words (if we play our cards right…..)
A repetition of the initial consonant sound (Sally sells sea shells by the sea
shore)
Giving human characteristics to inanimate objects