| A | B |
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| Celts | – the native people of Great Britain. Their language (Celtic, written in runes) evolved over time into modern English. |
| Runes | – the alphabet used by the Celts (and other early Northern European people). |
| Old English | – the language of Great Britain from approximately 500 AD to 1000 AD. |
| Middle English | – the language of Great Britain from approximately 1000 AD to 1500 AD. |
| Modern English | – The language of Great Britain (and elsewhere) from approximately 1500 AD to now. |
| Word Root | – part of a word. In English, many roots come from Greek and Latin. If you know what the roots mean, you can often figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. |
| Comedy | – a play intended to make the audience laugh, in which the characters ultimately win a happy ending. They often end in weddings and reunions. |
| Tragedy | – a play that works toward an unhappy ending, often the death or disgrace of the main character. |
| Monologue | – an extended speech by one character in a play. |
| Dialogue | – a conversation between two characters in a play. |
| Soliloquy | – when a character in a play is talking to himself, speaking his thoughts out loud. Often the other characters on stage don’t seem to hear these lines; only the audience can hear them. |
| Aside | – when a character in a play turns and talks directly to the audience. Again, the other characters on stage don’t seem to hear these lines; only the audience can hear them. |
| Act | – classically structured plays (like Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night) have 5 acts. |
| Scene | – each act of a play is divided into scenes. A scene typically has one setting, and time is continuous. |
| Line | – each scene in a play is divided into lines. You cite a quote from one of Shakespeare’s plays by giving the act, the scene, and the line. So a quote from Twelfth Night cited like this: (I.ii.1-4) would be a quote from the Act 1, scene 2, lines 1 through 4. |
| Iambic pentameter | – an iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (ta-DUM). Iambic pentameter is writing that has 5 iambs per line. So the meter goes like this: ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM. |
| Prose | – writing that is not poetry. |
| Paradox | – an idea that looks like it contradicts itself. So it’s something that’s true and impossible at the same time. For example, “don’t go near the water until you’ve learned to swim.” |
| Oxymoron | – this is a compressed paradox. It’s two words that seem to contradict each other. A “wise fool,” for example. Or “jumbo shrimp.” |
| Meter | the rhythm of language, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. |
| Stanza | a section of a poem, like a paragraph in an essay. |
| Couplet | two lines of poetry in a row that obviously go together, because they rhyme or they express a single thought. |
| Alliteration | a poetic or literary devise achieved by using several words that begin with the same consonants, as in "Whither wilt thou wander, wayfarer?" |
| Ambiguity | when something can be understood in more than one way, and it’s not clear which meaning is “right;” when something can be interpreted equally well in two different ways. |
| Figurative | not literal; used in figures of speech. |
