Literary Devices and Terms: Simile, Metaphor, Irony, and More

Simile

comparison using "like" or "as"

Metaphor

comparison not using "like" or "as"

Personification

giving human characteristics to non-humans

Protagonist

central character

Antagonist

person or force working against central character

Plot

sequence of events

Narrator

person telling the story

Theme

central insight of a work

Foreshadowing

hint of something to come

Flashback

earlier event inserted in chronology

Fact

something that can be proven

Opinion

view on issue

Sensory language

language that appeals to taste, sight, smell, hearing, or touch (the senses)

Figurative language

language that uses figures of speech

Denotation

dictionary definition

Connotation

implied meaning; feeling or association of word

Apostrophe

words spoken to something that can't respond

Active voice

subject performs the action

Passive voice

subject receives the action

Hyperbole

exaggeration

Irony

something different than expectation

Mood

atmosphere

Tone

the author's attitude toward the subject

Blank verse

poetry in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Free verse

poetry without rhyme or meter

Allusion

reference to important work, event, person, or lit.

Imply

To indicate

Infer

To conclude

Rhythm

Meter

Setting

Time and place

Enjambment

run-on in poetry

Imagery

use of words and phrases to create mental pictures

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds

Pun

play on words

Paradox

statement that is true but seems contradictory

Allegory

story with two or more levels of meaning

Ambiguity

statement with two or more possible meanings

Alliteration

repetition of beginning consonant sounds

Onomatopoeia

formation of word from sound associated with what is named (sizzle)

Consonance

repetition of terminal (ending) sounds

Thesis

main points of an essay (in one sentence)

Genre

literary type

Third-person omniscient

narrator can read everyone's mind

Third-person objective

narrator can't read anyone's mind

Third-person limited

narrator can read one person's mind

Dramatic irony

reader knows something character does not

Verbal irony

one thing is said but another is meant

Situational irony

situation where actions are not the expectation

Metonymy

one thing is substituted for another

Synecdoche

a part is substituted for a whole

Still learning (22)

You've started learning these terms. Keep it up!