Literary Terms Master List

This flashcard set contains key literary terms and their definitions to aid in studying and understanding literary concepts.

Allegory

A narrative in which characters, actions, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, or place in history, or to a work of art/literature.

Analogy

A comparison made between two items, situations, or ideas that are somewhat alike but unlike in most respects.

Anaphora

A figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one sentence or clause is repeated at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses.

Antagonist

A character who opposes the chief character or protagonist in a story or play.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent person or a personified quality, object, or idea.

Archetype

A character, situation, or action that represents common patterns of human life, often including a common meaning in culture.

Aside

A few words or a short passage spoken by a character to the audience while others pretend they cannot hear.

Assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in stressed syllables or words.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be used.

Atmosphere (mood)

The mood or feeling of a literary work created for the reader by the writer.

Ballad

A narrative poem that usually includes a repeated refrain.

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, a line of five feet.

Cacophony

Words in poetry that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds.

Caesura

A pause or break within a line of poetry.

Carpe diem

Latin for 'seize the day'; a theme found in lyric poetry meaning to enjoy life's pleasures.

Catharsis

Purification or purging of emotions such as pity or fear.

Character

An imaginary person represented in a work of fiction.

Characterization

The method an author uses to acquaint the reader with characters.

Chiasmus

A scheme in which the author introduces words or concepts in a certain order and then later repeats them in reverse order.

Cliché

An expression or phrase that is overused to the point of becoming trite and meaningless.

Climax

The decisive or turning point in a story or play when the action changes course.

Conceit

An elaborate figure of speech combining metaphor, simile, hyperbole, or oxymoron.

Conflict

The struggle between two opposing forces.

Connotation

The emotional associations surrounding a word.

Couplet

A pair of rhyming lines with identical meter.

Denotation

The strict, literal meaning of a word.

Denouement

The resolution of the plot.

Dialogue

The conversation between two or more people in a literary work.

Diction

The author’s choice of words or phrases.

Dramatic irony

A situation where events not known to a character are known to another character or to the audience.

Dramatic monologue

A lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded.

Elegy

A mourning poem or lament for an individual or tragic event.

Enjambment

The continuation of a complete idea from one line of poetry to the next without pause.

Epiphany

A revealing scene or moment where a character experiences deep realization.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a concluding word or word endings.

Euphemism

Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt or painful one.

Euphony

Words grouped together harmoniously for a pleasing flow of sound when spoken.

Exposition

The opening section of a narrative where characters, settings, themes, and conflicts are revealed.

Flashback

A narrative interruption that shows an episode that happened before a particular point in the story.

Foot

A group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and the associated unaccented syllables.

Foreshadowing

A hint given to the reader of future events.

Free verse

A type of poetry free from a fixed pattern of meter and rhyme.

Hamartia

A tragic flaw, often a misperception that ironically results from one's own strengths.

Hubris

Excessive self-pride or self-confidence, often leading to one's downfall.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech involving great exaggeration.

Iambic pentameter

A line of verse with five metrical feet.

Imagery

Sensory details that provide vividness in a literary work, stirring emotions.

In medias res

Latin for 'in the middle of things', describing a plot starting in the midst of events.

Irony

A contrast between what appears to be and what really is.

Juxtaposition

Placing two ideas or images side by side for original or insightful meaning.

Litotes

A figure of speech where a positive is expressed by negating its opposite.

Metaphor

A figure of speech involving an implied comparison.

Meter

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Metonymy

A figure of speech where a specific term is substituted for another closely associated word.

Motif

A recurrent word, image, theme, or phrase that tends to unify a literary work.

Narrator (persona/point of view)

The teller of the story.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sound of the thing being represented.

Paradox

A statement that seems self-contradictory but has valid meaning.

Parallelism

When a writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure.

Parody

A humorous imitation of serious writing.

Persona

The speaker or narrator of a text or poem, not to be assumed as the author.

Personification

The representation of abstractions or ideas as human beings.

Plot

The series of happenings in a literary work.

Point of view

The relationship between the teller of the story and the characters.

Polysyndeton

Using many conjunctions for an overwhelming effect in a sentence.

Prosody

The mechanics of verse poetry including sounds, rhythms, and meter.

Protagonist

The leading character in a literary work.

Pun

A humorous play on words with different meanings or similar sounds.

Rhyme

Exact repetition of sounds in the final accented syllables of two or more words.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhyme marked by assigning letters to each rhyming sound.

Satire

The technique using wit to ridicule a subject for reform.

Setting

The time, place, societal situation, and weather in which a narrative occurs.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'.

Situational irony

An occurrence contrary to what is expected.

Soliloquy

A convention that allows a character alone on stage to speak thoughts aloud.

Sonnet

A fourteen-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme.

Stereotype

A conventional plot or setting used for a specific purpose.

Stream of consciousness

The re-creation of a character’s flow of thought.

Style

The distinctive handling of language by an author.

Symbol

A person, place, or object representing something beyond itself.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole.

Synesthesia

Describing one sense using another sense.

Syntax

The arrangement of words within a sentence.

Theme

The main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work.

Tone

The author’s attitude toward the subject matter and audience.

Understatement

A figure of speech that says less than what one means.

Verbal irony

When the intended meaning differs from the literal meaning of a statement.

Villanelle

A poetic form of five tercets and a final quatrain, totaling 19 lines.