| A | B |
|---|
| stanza | group of lines in a poem |
| rhyme | repetition of sounds at the end of words |
| simile | comparison of two unlike things, using like or as |
| alliteration | repetition of beginning sounds of words |
| narrative poem | poem that tells a story |
| rhythm | beat or meter |
| refrain | line or lines regularly repeated in a poem or song |
| allusion | reference to something famous that is not in that piece of literature |
| imagery | language that uses words that appeal to the senses; also called sensory words |
| lyric poem | poem that expresses thoughts or emotions about a subject; like the words of a song |
| dialect | regional variation of a language |
| dialogue | conversation; what a character says |
| figurative language | way of saying something that is not meant to be taken literally |
| flashback | scenes that happened earlier in the story |
| hero/protagonist | main character in a story, usually with good qualities |
| irony | contrast between what is and what is expected |
| verbal irony | say one thing but mean something else |
| situational irony | outcome of an event is different than what is expected |
| dramatic irony | you know something that a character does not know |
| pun | a play on words |
| idiom | figurative language expressing an idea that is not meant to be taken literally |
| point of view | relationship between the narrator to the story |
| first person point of view | the story is told by one of the characters in the story |
| third person omniscient | narrator is outside the story, tells thoughts and actions of more than one character; all-knowing |
| third person limited | narrator is outside the story; story told through the actions and thoughts of one character |
| repetition | recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanza |
| speaker | voice in a poem; like a narrator in a story |
| style | author's choice and arrangement of words and sentences |
| voice | author's distinctive style |
| setting | when and where a story takes place |
| character | person or animal in a story |
| plot | series of events that happen in a story |
| rising action | events that lead to the climax |
| exposition | introduction of the story |
| conflict | problem in a story |
| resolution | way the problem is solved |
| falling action | events that occur after the climax |
| mood | feeling or emotional atmosphere of a story |
| tone | author's attitude toward a topic |
| stance | author's position |
| purpose | why a piece was writted: entertain, describe, inform, persuade |
| bias | favoring one side over another |
| theme | message or lesson |
| main idea | what a selection is about |
| detail | a specific piece of information in a selection |
| inference | an educated guess, it is not specifically found in the selection |
| rhyme scheme | pattern of rhyme in a poem, determined by last word in each line |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds in words |
| connotation | feeling created by some words |
| denotation | dictionary defition of a word |
| iamb | beat in a poem of an unstressed and stressed foot |
| personification | giving something not human human characteristics |
| metaphor | comparison of two unlike things without using like or as |
| hyperbole | exaggeration to make a point |
| genre | a type of literature |
| biography | story of a person written by someone else |
| fiction | not factual, made-up |
| non-fiction | factual, real, true |
| characterization | the way the author develops the personality of a character |
| foreshadow | a hint that something is going to happen later in the story |
| onomatopoeia | words that make the sound |
| symbolism | something that represents something else |
| analyze | to break something into parts to understand how all of the parts make a whole |
| significance | importance |
| trace | to put things in chronological order, to sequence |
| evaluate | determine the value or quality of something |
| formulate | come up with an idea or plan |
| summarize | tell a story focusing on the main points |
| explain | make something clear or understandable |
| contrast | explain the differences |
| compare | explain the similarities |
| predict | tell what you think is going to happen |
| support | give reasons to argue for something |
| conclude | bring to an end |
| describe | use details to give a clear image of what you are saying |
