Literary Devices and Rhetorical Strategies Vocabulary

A vocabulary flashcard deck defining key literary devices, rhetorical appeals, and figurative language terms from the lecture notes.

Ethos

appeal to credibility, authority, and trustworthiness to persuade the audience.

Logos

appeal to logic, facts, and evidence to persuade the audience.

Pathos

appeal to emotions like sympathy, pity, joy, or anger to persuade the audience.

Parallelism

uses the same grammatical pattern for items (all nouns, all -ing endings).

Irony

a contrast between what's said or what happens and what's expected.

Dramatic Irony

when the audience knows information that a character does not.

Situational Irony

when the outcome of a situation is opposite of what was expected.

Verbal Irony

saying one thing, but intending another (the opposite of what you mean).

Tone

the author's attitude toward the subject, audience, characters, etc.

Paradox

an idea that is contradictory but actually contains a deeper meaning/truth.

Hyperbole

uses extreme exaggeration, creating a statement to not be taken literally.

Anecdote

a short story/narrative about a real incident or person.

Repetition

strategically repeating words, phrases, or ideas to add emphasis.

Imagery

descriptive language that appeals to the senses.

Allusion

a brief reference to a well-known person, place, thing, or idea.

Comic Relief

used to provide an emotional break for the audience from a heavy subject.

Connotation

the ideas or feelings a word suggests beyond its basic meaning.

Denotation

a words literal, dictionary definition and core meaning.

Allegory

a piece where characters/events/settings symbolize deeper abstract ideas.

Aphorism

short statement that expresses a universal truth, moral, or observation.

Ellipsis

words left out from quotation, a pause of speech, unfinished thought (…).

Euphemism

a gentle word to replace something harsh (died → passed away).

Figurative Language

words beyond their literal to create imagery, emotion, and depth.

Simile

uses 'like' or 'as' to compare two unlike things.

Metaphor

makes a direct comparison to say one thing IS another.

Metonymy

a word is replaced by another closely related word rather than a similar one.

Personification

human qualities, emotions, or actions are given to non human things.

Foreshadowing

subtle hints about future events that will happen in a story.

Juxtaposition

two contrasting characters are placed together to highlight differences.

Motif

recurring element that appears in a story to reinforce a larger theme or idea.

Mood

overall feeling or emotional atmosphere an author created for the reader.

Oxymoron

combines two opposite or contradicting words side by side.

Anaphora

a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of sentence/clause/line.

Antithesis

the direct opposite of or a strong contrast between two ideas.

Ambiguity

something is unclear or has more than one meaning.