| A | B |
|---|
| Alliteration | repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” |
| 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 |
| Assonance | repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds: “Anna’s apples,” “the pond is long gone” |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| Metaphor | an implied comparison between two unlike things (her talents blossomed) |
| Mood | the emotions the reader feels while reading (gloomy, suspense, mysterious) |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes (mew, hiss, crack, swish, murmur, buzz) |
| 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 |
| Protagonist | the central character in a narrative literary work, around whom the main conflict revolves |
| Rhyme | repetition of similar or identical sounds: "look and crook" |
| 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) |
| Stanza | a group of lines forming a unit in a poem |
| 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 |
