| A | B |
|---|
| allegory | A story or poem in which characters, setting, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. |
| alliteration | The repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together |
| Allusion | A reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture. |
| ambiguity | a technique by which a writer deliberately suggests two or more different, and sometimes conflicting meanings in a work. |
| analogy | A comparison made between two things to show how they are alike. |
| Anecdote | A very brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something. |
| antagonist | The opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story. |
| apostrophe | A technique by which a writer addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is either dead or absent |
| atmosphere | The mood or feeling created in a piece of writing |
| cadence | The natural, rhythmic rise and fall of language as it is normally spoken |
| caesura | a pause or break within a line of poetry |
| catalog | a list of things, people or events |
| cliche | a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse |
| climax | That point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest |
| conflict | the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story |
| dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area |
| exposition | refers to the part of the plot in which the reader is given important background information on the characters, their setting, and their problems. |
| figure of speech | a word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and that is not meant to be taken literally |
| flashback | a scene that interupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time. |
| foil | a character who acts as a contrast to another character |
| foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happn later in a plot |
| imagery | the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience |
| Irony | In general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality |
| metephor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles. |
| onomatopoeia | the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase |
| parable | a relatively short story that reaches a moral, or lesson, about how to lead a good life |
| paradox | a statement that appears selfcontradictory but that reveals a kind of truth |
| parody | a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style |
| personification | a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings thoughts, or attitudes |
| protagonist | the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action |
| pun | a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things |
| rhetorical question | a question asked for an effect, not actually requiring an answer |
| satire | a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about change |
| simile | a figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using like, as, than, or resembles |
| soliloquy | a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage |
| stream of consciousness | a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind |
| style | the distinctive way in which a writer uses language |
| suspense | a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in the story |
| symbol | a person, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself |
| tall tale | an outrageously exagerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable |
| theme | the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work |
| tragedy | in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end |
