| A | B |
|---|
| alliteration | repetition of beginning consonant sounds |
| allusion | a reference to a well-known person, place, event, novel or work of art |
| anecdote | a brief story about an interesting or amusing event |
| autobiography | a person's life story (nonfiction) |
| biography | a person's life story told by another person (nonfiction) |
| character | a person/animal who takes part in the action of a literary work |
| conflict | a problem in a story between characters |
| dialect | the form of a language spoken by people in a certain region |
| dialogue | a conversation between characters |
| drama | fiction written to be performed by actors (plays) |
| fable | a story using animal characters that teaches a lesson |
| fiction | literature that is about imaginary characters and events |
| figurative language | writing that is not meant to be taken literally |
| flashback | an interruption in fiction that relates an event from an earlier time |
| foreshadowing | the use of clues that suggest events that have yet to happen |
| genre | a type of literature |
| hero/heroine | a character whose actions are inspiring or noble |
| imagery | a word/phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses |
| irony | a literary device that involves surprising or amusing contradictions |
| metaphor | comparison of two unlike things NOT using like or as |
| meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem |
| mood | the feeling created in the reader by a literary work |
| moral | a lesson taught by a literary work |
| myth | a ficitional story using gods and goddesses |
| narrator | a speaker/character who tells a story |
| nonfiction | writing that presents and explains real people, places, or events |
| novel | a long work of fiction |
| onomatopoeia | use of words that imitate sounds |
| personification | figurative language where a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics |
| plot | the sequence of events in a literary work |
| point of view | the perspective from which a story is told |
| protagonist | main character in a literary work |
| rhyme | repetition of sounds at the ends of words |
| setting | time and place of the action of a literary work |
| short story | a brief work of fiction |
| simile | comparison of two unlike things using like or as |
| stanza | a group of lines in a poem |
| suspense | a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work |
| symbol | anything that represents something else |
| theme | a central message in a literary work |
