| A | B |
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| Abstract Words | Words that name ideas that cannot be touched, heard, smelled, seen or tasted; for example: love and freedom |
| Alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds; for example: The wind wailed. |
| Antagonist | the villain of the story – the person who created the conflict for the main character |
| Antonyms | words that are opposite in meaning; for example up is an antonym for down |
| Author’s Purpose | the reason the author wrote the story. An author’s purpose may be to entertain, inform, teach or convince. |
| Autobiography | a type of literature in which a person tells about his or her own like. They are nonfiction. |
| Character | a person in the story |
| Character Development | the change in a character from the beginning to the ending of a story. |
| Character Development | the change in a character from the beginning to the ending of a story. |
| Characterization | ways of showing what a character is like. The way a character looks, talks, acts or thinks is part of his or her characterization. |
| Cliché | figurative language that has lost its power because of overuse for example: He was green with envy. |
| Climax | the turning point of a story |
| Compound Word | a word formed by combining two or more words; For example, table and cloth become tablecloth |
| Concrete Words | words that name things that can be touched , heard smelled, seen or tasted; for example, siren, apple, boat |
| Conflict | a fight or difference or opinion. In a story there can be a conflict between a characters, between a character and society, between a character and nature or a conflict in the mind of a character. |
| Dialect | the local use of language. In different parts of the country, the choice of words, how they are used, and how they are spoken can be different. |
| Episode | an event in a story; a part of the plot |
| Fiction | a story that is made up or imagined |
| Figurative Language | descriptive language that is not meant to be taken literally. For example; It’s raining cats and dogs |
| Flashback | an interruption in a story in which events that happen earlier are told. |
| Foreshadowing | clues in a story that help the reader guess what will happen next |
| Homonyms | words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings; for example, wait is a homonym for weight |
| Imagery | the picture the writer creates in the mind of the reader |
| Irony | when something happens which is the opposite of what is expected |
| Metaphor | a comparison that does not use the words like or as; for example; Life is a gamble. |
| Motive | the reason behind a character’s action |
| Narrator | the person who tells the story |
| Nonfiction | literature that tells about real people and events |
| Onomatopoeia | when words copy the sounds of the things they name; for example, buzz, hiss, gulp |
| Plot | the outline of the events of the story |
| Poetry | writing that uses words in a special way. Poetry is meant to be listened to- like a song. Poetry often contains figurative language imagery, and rhyme. |
| Point of view | is the viewpoint from which the story is told. In the first-person point of view, the story is told by a character in the story, using the words I or me. In the third-person point of view, the story is told by an observer, using the words he, she or they. |
| Protagonist | is the hero of the story who is faced with a conflict. The protagonist is usually the main character. |
| Rhyme | is the repetition of a similar sound or sounds; for example, home rhymes with poem |
| Simile | a comparison that uses the words like or as; for example, He’s as tall as a giraffe |
| Stanza | lines in a poem or song that go together |
| Symbol | is something that represents (stands for) something else. |
| Synonyms | words that have the same or similar meanings; for example story is a synonym for tale |
| Theme | the main idea of a story |
| Time Span | the time between the beginning and the ending of a story |
| Tone | the overall effect of the writing in a story; for example, a comedy has a funny tone; a tragedy has a sad tone; a mystery has a suspenseful tone. |
| Word in Context | how a word is used in a sentence |
