| A | B |
|---|
| alliteration | repetition of sounds at the beginning of words |
| allusion | a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art, always indirect |
| atmosphere | the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage done through the writer’s choice of words, events in the work, or physical setting |
| connotation | emotional implications that words may carry |
| motif | reoccurring image or idea |
| denotation | the specific, exact meaning of a word, independent of its emotional coloration or association; dictionary definition |
| foot | a unit of rhythm in a verse |
| hyperbole | a conscious exaggeration used without the intent of literal persuasion |
| metaphor | comparison of unlike things without using the words like or as |
| meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem, determined by the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas |
| personification | literary device where the writer attributes human qualities to objects or ideas |
| rhyme | the repetition of sounds at the ends of words |
| satire | writing that ridicules or criticizes individuals, ideas, institutions, social conventions, or other works of art or literature |
| simile | comparison of one thing to another using the words like or as |
| sonnet | a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, focused on a single theme |
| theme | the main idea in a piece of literature,; topic or subject and author’s comment |
| tone | the writer’s attitude toward his or her subject, characters, or audience |
| mood | the feeling created in the reader by a literary passage |
| imagery | creation of mental pictures or sensation by pertinent word choice and heightened description which appeal to the five senses |
| infer | to draw meaning from a combination of clues in the text without explicit references to the text |
| point of view | perspective from which the story is written |
| foreshadow | hints during the narrative about what will happen later |
| symbol | a word or object which has meaning in itself but stands for something else |
| free verse | poetry not written in regular rhythmical pattern or meter |
| genre | a category of literature |
| irony | a contrast between what is stated and what is meant or between what is expected and what actually occurs |
| onomaotopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| paradox | a statement that seems to be contradictory but actually presents a truth |
| rhythm | the pattern of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language |
| stanza | a group of lines in a poem that are considered to be a unit |
| verse | a single metrical line in a poem` |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds |
| consonance | repetition of consonant sounds |
