Vocab A-D

Action

what characters do, say, or experience that changes the story

Allegory

a story or poem where characters, places, and events stand for hidden ideas, moral lessons, or political events

Alliteration

a literary device where two or more neighboring words or syllables repeat the same initial consonant sound

Allusion

a brief, indirect reference to a famous person, place, event, or artwork outside the text

Anadiplosis

a literary and rhetorical device where the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is repeated at or near the beginning of the next clause, sentence, or line

Analogy

compares two unrelated things to explain a complex or unknown idea by showing their shared qualities or relationship

Anaphora

a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of consecutive sentences, clauses, or lines

Antagonist

a character, group, or force that goes against the main character

Anthropomorphism

a literary device that gives human traits, emotions, and behaviors to non-human things like animals, objects, or natural elements

Aphorism

a short, punchy statement that shares a general truth, a moral lesson, or an observation about life

Apostrophe

a figure of speech where a speaker directly addresses an absent, dead, or imaginary person, or an inanimate object or abstract idea, as if it were present and able to respond

Assonance

a literary device where the same or similar vowel sound repeats within nearby words

Blank Verse

poetry written with regular metrical lines that do not rhyme

Cacophony

the use of words with harsh, jarring, or unharmonious sounds to create an unpleasant or disruptive effect

Caesura

a deliberate pause, break, or stop within a line of poetry or verse

Character

a person, animal, being, or object given life in a story

Characterization

the way an author builds and reveals a character's personality, traits, and motives in a story

Chiasmus

words, grammatical structures, or concepts are repeated in reverse order to create a symmetrical, criss-cross ABBA pattern

Climax

the highest point of tension, drama, or conflict in a story’s plot

Conceit

an extended, elaborate metaphor that makes a surprising and far-fetched comparison between two very dissimilar things

Conflict

the struggle between opposing forces that drives the story's plot and reveals a character's traits

Connotation

the emotional, cultural, or secondary meaning that a word suggests beyond its literal dictionary definition

Consonance

the deliberate repetition of consonant sounds within a group of words

Deconstruction

a post-structuralist method of literary analysis that reveals how a text's internal logic, language choices, and contradictions undermine its own stable meaning

Denotation

the literal, explicit dictionary definition of a word

Denouement

the final part of a story's plot where loose ends are tied up, remaining questions are answered, and a sense of resolution is achieved

Deus ex Machina

an impossible or hopeless problem in a story is solved suddenly by a brand-new, unexpected event, object, or character

Diacope

a word or phrase is repeated with a small number of intervening words in between

Dialogue

a spoken or written exchange between two or more characters

Diction

an author's deliberate choice of words and phrasing to convey a specific meaning, tone, and style

Double Entendre

a figure of speech or phrase that has two distinct meanings, where the first meaning is straightforward and innocent, while the second is often risqué, suggestive, or socially awkward