Literary Terms and Definitions

These flashcards cover essential literary terms and their definitions to assist in studying for exams.

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close to one another.

Allusion

A passing reference to a famous statement, person, place, event, etc.

Assonance

Repetition of similar vowel sounds in words that are close to one another.

Ballad

A song or songlike poem that tells a story.

Blank verse

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Cadence

The natural fall and rise of the voice, often used in free verse to imitate the sound of spoken language.

Cliché

An expression that is so overused that it has become stale.

Connotations

All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests.

Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Diction

The writer’s or speaker’s choice of words.

Elegy

A poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost.

Epic

A long narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.

Epitaph

An inscription on a tombstone or a commemorative poem written about a person who has died.

Free verse

Poetry that has no regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion or create comic effect.

Iambic pentameter

A line of poetry that is made up of 5 iambs.

Imagery

Language that appeals to the senses.

Incremental Repetition

A device used widely in ballads where a line or lines are repeated with slight variations from stanza to stanza.

Lyric poetry

Poems that do NOT tell a story, but focus on expressing emotions or thoughts.

Metaphor

A figure of speech where a comparison between two unlike things is made by stating one thing IS another.

Meter

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry (the beat).

Mock epic

A comic narrative poem that parodies the epic by treating a trivial subject in a lofty, grand manner.

Ode

A long lyric poem, usually a direct address, praising some subject using dignified language.

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning.

Pastoral

A type of poem that depicts rustic life in idyllic, idealized terms.

Personification

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to nonhuman things.

Pun

A play on the multiple meanings of a word or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Quatrain

Four lines of poetry (stanza or poem) unified by a rhyme scheme.

Refrain

A repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines.

Rhyme

The same ending sound of words.

Rhythm

The alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.

Simile

A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using like, as, than, or resembles.

Sonnet

A 14-line lyric poem usually written in iambic pentameter and a set rhyme scheme.

Stanza

A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit.

Style

The manner in which a writer or speaker says what they wish to say.

Symbol

A person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and something beyond itself.

Tall Tale

A type of folk literature characterized by exaggerations and outlandish plot details.

Understatement

A figure of speech that consists of saying less than what is really meant or with less force than is appropriate; it is a type of irony and the opposite of hyperbole.

Iamb

A measure of poetry consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor developed over several lines of writing or perhaps throughout an entire poem.

End rhyme

Rhyme that happens at the ends of the lines of a poem.

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within the lines of a poem.

Near rhymes

Ending sounds of words that are similar, but not the same.

Exact rhymes

Ending sounds that are exactly the same.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhymed lines in a poem.