English Lit terms

Heroic Couplet

A rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter.

Lyric Poem

A poem focused on a single thought, image, or emotion.

Masculine Rime

A rhyme of final stressed syllables, usually one syllable words.

Feminine Rime

A rhyme that involves the repetition of similar sounding words, often at the end of lines.

Rhythm

Patterns of beats, or stresses in spoken or written language.

Meter

The structured rhythm in a poem, created by a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Foot

The basic unit of poetic rhythm.

Meiosis

A figure of speech that intentionally understates something, implying it is lesser in significance.

Narrative Poem

A poem that tells a story and has a well-developed dramatic situation.

Ode

A formal and serious lyric poem that praises or reflects upon a person, object, or event.

Persona

The voice or character speaking in a poem, distinct from the author.

Dactylic

A poetic foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

Quatrain

A four-line stanza or poem often with a rhyme scheme.

Scansion

The process of finding, marking, and analyzing rhythm.

Sestina

A complex poetic form with six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a three-line stanza.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem typically divided into two parts: an octet and a sestet.

Hamartia

The tragic flaw of a protagonist that leads to their downfall.

Anagnorisis

Recognition or discovery in the narrative.

Hubris

Arrogance, often leading to a protagonist's downfall.

Nihilism

The belief that all values are baseless and that life is meaningless.

Hedonism

The belief that pleasure is the highest good and main goal of life.

Stoicism

A philosophy that teaches self-control and acceptance of fate.

Modernism

A literary movement reflecting fragmentation, disillusionment, and experimentation.

Humanism

A Renaissance philosophy emphasizing human value and potential over divine matters.

Utilitarianism

The ethical theory that the best action is the one that maximizes utility.

Empiricism

The belief that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience.

Atmosphere/Mood

Overall mood of a story or poem.

Bildungsroman

A coming of age story that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of a character from youth to adulthood.

Connotation

Association, suggestions, overtones.

Deductive Reasoning

A logical process where a specific conclusion is drawn from a general principle or premise.

Cadence

The natural, rhythmic flow of language, particularly in poetry or speech.

Caricature

An exaggerated portrayal of a character, often for comic or satirical effect.

Denotation

Dictionary definition of a word.

Deus ex Machina

Latin for "God from the machine"; a plot device where a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly resolved by an unexpected intervention.

Characterization

The creation of a character's personality through descriptions and details.

Diction

The author's or character's choice of words.

Flat Character

An undeveloped character with little background or motivation.

Round Character

A well-developed character with depth and complexity.

Static Character

A character who does not change throughout the story.

Dynamic Character

A character who undergoes significant change throughout the story.

Chiasmus

A rhetorical figure in which words or concepts are repeated in reverse order.

Didactic Literature

Describes literature that is intended to teach, especially moral or ethical lessons.

Doppelganger

A literary double of a character, often representing a hidden or darker aspect of their personality.

Epistolary

A literary work written in the form of letters, diary entries, or other personal documents.

Epigraph

A short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.

Colloquialism

Characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing.

Epiphany

A sudden realization or insight experienced by a character.

Conceit

An extended metaphor that makes a surprising or clever comparison between seemingly unrelated things.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt.

Imagery

Vivid descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five senses.

Extended Metaphor

A metaphor that is extended in great detail throughout a work.

Figurative Language

Language that uses figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive, and to express things non-literally.

Figure of Speech

A word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical effect.

Foil

A character or situation that contrasts with and highlights another character or situation.

Foreshadowing

Hints or clues about events that will occur later in the narrative.

Generic Conventions

The typical features or characteristics of a particular genre.

Genre

A category or type of literature.

Inference

To draw a reasonable conclusion based on evidence.

In Medias Res

Latin for "into the middle of things"; a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of the action.

Invective

Emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language.

Irony

A literary device where appearance differs from reality.

Juxtaposition

To place two or more things side by side for the purpose of comparison or contrast.

Litotes

A figure of speech that uses understatement for effect, often using double negatives.

Homily

A serious talk, speech, or sermon that offers moral or spiritual advice.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that is purposefully exaggerated for effect.

Loose Sentence

A sentence that places the main idea at the beginning, followed by dependent phrases and clauses.

Macrocosm

The large, overall structure of the universe or a literary work.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as."

Metonymy

Substituting one thing for another thing closely associated with it.

Parallelism

Use of similar grammatical structures or word order in successive phrases or clauses.

Anaphora

A type of parallelism involving the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.

Parody

An imitation of a particular writer, artist, or genre, with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Pedantic

Describes someone who is overly concerned with formal rules, minute details, or academic knowledge.

Microcosm

A small representative system having analogies to a larger system.

Mood

Atmosphere, feeling, or ambience of a literary work.

Narrative

A story that has a well-developed dramatic situation.

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the natural sound of a thing.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which two contradictory terms are combined.

Parable

A short story that teaches a moral lesson.

Paradox

A statement that contradicts itself, being both true and untrue at the same time.

Periodic Sentence

A sentence in which the main idea is at the end, after introductory clauses or phrases.

Personification

Giving human characteristics to something that is not human.

Physiognomy

The supposed art of judging character from facial features.

Point of View

The perspective from which a story is told, such as 1st person or 3rd person.

Prose

Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

Repetition

The intentional reuse of words, phrases, or structures to create rhythm, reinforce meaning, or build emphasis.

Rhetoric

The art of effective persuasive speaking or writing.

Symbol/Symbolism

An image or thing that stands for something else.

Rhetorical Modes

The variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing.

Sarcasm

A form of verbal irony in which someone says the opposite of what they really mean.

Synecdoche

A part stands for the whole.

Synesthesia

A literary device where one sense is described using terms from another sense.

Satire

A literary work that uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize human vice or foolishness.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences.

Semantics

Subtle shades of meaning in words, phrases, or texts and how interpretation can vary.

Style

The author's unique way of expressing ideas through word choice, sentence structure, literary devices, and tone.

Subject Complement

A word or phrase that follows a verb and renames or describes the subject.

Subordinate Clause

A clause that cannot stand alone in a sentence because it does not express a complete thought.

Thesis

The central argument or main point that a writer puts forward in an essay.

Tone

The author's or speaker's attitude in a piece of writing.