| A | B |
|---|
| Figurative Language | language that describes ordinary things in a new way |
| Universal Theme | Because it is common to situations, conditions, or purposes worldwide, it appeals to people everywhere. |
| Hyperbole | a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration |
| Understatement | the opposite of hyperbole |
| Idiom | a phrase that has a different meaning from the literal meaning of the individual words that make up the expression |
| Imagery | a word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses |
| Metaphor | a comparison without the use of like or as |
| Motif | an element that appears over and over again in a literary work or in a group of literary works |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of words in which the sounds seem to resemble the sounds they describe |
| Oxymoron | form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression |
| Paradox | a statement that contradicts itself |
| Pun | a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings |
| Personification | a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics |
| Flashback | a scene in a narrative that breaks the normal time sequence of the plot to narrate events that happened earlier |
| Foreshadowing | hints at events or conflicts to come in the story |
| Hero | the main character; He represents what his culture admires and respects |
| Suspense | a growing feeling of anxiety and excitement that makes a reader curious about the outcome of a story |
| Surrealism | art and writing which is not realistic |
| Symbol | a person, place, or thing that stands for something beyond itself |
| Rhetorical question | a question asked only for effect, or to emphasize a point |
| Satire | a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human folly or weakness |
| Scenery | background created on stage that helps show the setting of the play |
| Sentimentality | excessively emotional, especially appealing to feelings instead of reason |
| Simile | a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words like or as |
| Epic Simile | long comparisons that often go on for several lines and do not always use “like” or “as” |
| Narrative | tells a story |
| Eulogy | a public speech or written tribute honoring one recently decreased |
| Tall tale | story with exaggerated characters and events |
| Connotation | an association that a word calls to mind, beyond the dictionary meaning of the word |
| Denotation | the dictionary definition of a word |
| Dialect | the variety of a language used by the people of a particular region |
| Diction | the word choice or a writer or speaker |
| Didactic | Prose or painting that is intended primarily to teach. |
| Editorial Cartoon | a drawing which makes fun of some current event by using exaggeration, irony of a situation, biased viewpoint, and humor |
| Epithet | an adjective or descriptive phrase that is regularly used to characterize a person, place, or thing |
| Euphemism | substitutes a mild, inoffensive term for one considered offensive |
| Mood | the feeling that the writer wants the reader to get from a work of literature |
| Motivation | what stimulates action |
| Narrative | writing that tells a story |
| Narrator | the speaker or character that is telling the story |
| Newspaper column | a regular feature in a newspaper in which a certain writer gives his or her views about the news or about life in general |
| Parallelism | corresponding syntactical forms (example: noun phrase, noun phrase, noun phrase) |
| Paraphrase | to restate a text or passage in other words |
| Tone | the attitude of a writer toward his or her subject or audience |
| Synecdoche | a form of a metaphor; a part of something is used to signify the whole |
| Syntax | structure of the sentence |
| Theme | the central message, concern or insight into life |
| Implied Theme | the message is revealed gradually through the unfolding of the story |
| Stated Theme | the message is stated directly |
| Cliché | overused phrase which has lost its freshness |
