| A | B |
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| Alliteration | repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” |
| Allegory | a story that has a deeper or more general meaning in addition to the simple surface story. It has a political, historic, or religious connection and often has animal characters. (Animal Farm by George Orwell or Aesop's Fables) |
| Allusion | a reference to a well-known person, character, place, event, concept, or literary work |
| Analogy | explaining an idea by comparing it to something that may be simpler to understand, but is parallel in meaning. (Austin is to Texas as Sacramento is to California) |
| Antagonist | a person or a force in society or nature that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama |
| Archetype | an idea,, a character, a story, or an image that is common to human experience across cultures and throughout the world (can include colors, themes, familiar characters such as the villain in a black cape, or the young star-crossed lovers, or recurring images such as a snake or a rose) |
| Aside | in drama, a character's comment or short speech is directed to the audience or another character but is not heard by any other characters on the stage |
| Assonance | repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds: “Anna’s apples,” “the pond is long gone” |
| Apostrophe | a speaker addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or an absent person (Juliet addresses the night) |
| Consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of nonrhyming words or stressed syllables (•He struck a streak of bad luck) |
| Conflict | the central struggle between opposing forces in a story or drama (person vs. person; person vs. nature; person vs. society; person vs. self; person vs. fate/God) |
| Dialogue | conversation between characters in a literary work |
| Diction | a writer's choice of words to create a particular meaning or feeling |
| Extended Metaphor | a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem |
| Ethos | a moral or ethical based argument (the speaker's credibility; is he/she trushworthy,m knowledgeable or dependable) |
| Euphemism | a pleasant phrase that is used to replace one that is unpleasant or offensive. (“He passed away” instead of “he kicked the bucket” or “died.” or "plus size" for overweight) |
| Figurative Language | language used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly (non-literal language) Includes simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbol,etc) |
| Flashback | an interruption in a narrative that tells about something that happened before that point in the story or before the story began for the purpose of making the present clearer |
| Foreshadowing | a clue or hint to prepare readers for events that will happen later in a story |
| Genre | a type or category to which a literary work belongs |
| Hamartia | the flaw in a character that leads to the downfall |
| Hubris | excessive pride or arrogance |
| Hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor (you've asked me a million times) |
| Imagery | descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell (the crimson liquid spilled from the neck of the white dove, staining and matting its pure, white feathers) |
| Irony | a contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between what is expected and what actually happens. |
| Dramatic Irony | the audience or reader knows information that characters do not (Juliet drinks the potion but is really not going to die) |
| Situational Irony | the actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected (The Gift of the Magi) |
| Verbal Irony | a person says one thing and means another (you get drenched in rain and scoff at yur wet clothes while your friends say, "lucky you") |
| Logos | an argument that appeals to a sense of logic by using facts and logic |
| Metaphor | an implied comparison between two unlike things (her talents blossomed) |
| Mood | the emotions the reader feels while reading (gloomy, suspense, mysterious) |
| Monologue | a long speech by a character in a drama |
| Motif | a significant word, phrase, image, description, idea, or other element repeated throughout a literary work and related to the theme (night and day in Romeo and Juliet) |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes (mew, hiss, crack, swish, murmur, buzz) |
| Oxymoron | a figure of speech in which opposite ideas are combined (wise fool, hateful love, jumbo shrimp) |
| Pathos | an emotional argument used to prove your point/plead your case |
| Parallelism | the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form. (And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you --- ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy) |
| Paradox | a statement that appears contradictory, but is accurate and true (water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink - Rime of the Ancient Mariner) |
| Personification | a figure of speech in which an animal, an object, a force of nature, or an idea is given human form or characteristics ( |
| Plot | the sequence of events in a story, play, or narrative |
| 1st Person Narrator | the narrator is a character in the story (uses I) |
| 2nd Person Narrator | story told from the perspective of "you" |
| 3rd Person Narrator | the narrator is someone who stands outside the story and describes the characters and action |
| Pun | a play on words often humorous, usually relying on multiple meanings of a single word or of similar sounding words |
| Protagonist | the central character in a narrative literary work, around whom the main conflict revolves |
| Setting | the time and place in which the events of a literary work occur. (includes not only the physical surroundings, but also the ideas, customs, values, and beliefs of a time and place) |
| Simile | a figure of speech that uses like or as to compare two seeminly unlike things (She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen) |
| Soliloquy | in a drama, a long speech by a character who is alone on stage (or is under the impression of being alone) |
| Speaker | the voice speaking in a poem, similar to the narrator in a work of prose |
| Stanza | a group of lines forming a unit in a poem |
| Stereotype | a generalization about a group of people that is made without regard for individual differences (the rebellious teenager is a stereotype) |
| Suspense | technique that keeps the reader guessing what will happen next |
| Symbol/Symbolism | any object, person, place, or experience that exists on a literal level but also respresents something else, usually something abstract ("The Gift of the Magi", Della's hair is the symbol of her beauty) |
| Theme | the central message of a work of literature, often expresses as a general statement about life. |
| Tone | the author's particular attitude, either stated or implied in the writing; it is found through the use of diction (word choice), syntax (sentence structure) and style |
