English 10 Honors literary language list

ad hominem

is Latin for "against the man," and refers to the logical fallacy (error) of arguing that someone is incorrect because they are unattractive, immoral, weird, and so on.

allegory

a story within a story. It has a "surface story" and another story hidden underneath.

alliteration

, words that begin with the same sound are placed close together.

allusion

is basically a reference to something else. It’s when a writer mentions some other work or refers to an earlier part of the current work.

ambiguity

idea or situation that can be understood in multiple ways.

analogy

a literary technique in which two unrelated objects are compared for their shared qualities.

anaphora

is when a certain word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of clauses or sentences that follow each other.

anecdote

is a very short story that is significant to the topic at hand; usually adding personal knowledge or experience to the topic.

antithesis

is the opposite of a statement, concept, or idea.

aphorism

is a short statement of a general truth, insight, or good advice.

archetype

an idea, symbol, pattern, or character type, in a story.

assonance

the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences.

caesura

refers to a break or pause in the middle of a line of verse.

catharsis

meaning "cleansing" in Greek, refers to a literary theory that cleansing our emotions was the purpose of a tragedy.

cliché

a saying, image, or idea which has been used so much that it sounds terribly uncreative.

connotation

A feeling or idea that a word has, in addition to its literal or main meaning.

consonance

is the repetition of a consonant sound in a line or sentence, creating rhythm.

conundrum

is a difficult problem, one that is impossible or almost impossible to solve.

deus ex machina

is Latin for "a god from the machine." It’s when some new character, force, or event suddenly shows up to solve a seemingly hopeless situation.

diction

refers to word choice and phrasing in any written or spoken text.

double entendre

is much like what it sounds like—a double meaning or interpretation for a word, phrase, or figure of speech.

dramatic irony

occurs when the audience knows something the characters don’t.

equivocation

Commonly known as "doublespeak," is the use of vague language to hide one’s meaning.

ethos

one of the three basic argumentative appeals, in which a speaker establishes their credibility and knowledge.

euphemism

polite, mild phrases which substitute for more unpleasant ways of saying something sad or uncomfortable.

exposition

is the first paragraph or paragraphs in which the characters, setting (time and place), and basic information is introduced.

fallacy

a mistaken belief, especially one based on an unsound argument.

hamartia

is the tragic flaw or error that reverses a protagonist’s fortune from good to bad.

homophone

is Greek for "same sound." It’s when two or more words have the same sound, but different meanings.

hubris

means "excessive pride" or "overconfidence." It’s when somebody gets so confident that they start to believe they’re invincible.

hyperbole

is a figure of speech in which an author or speaker purposely and obviously exaggerates to an extreme.

idiom

a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning different from the words used.

imagery

Language used by poets, novelists, and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader.

inference

is the process of drawing a conclusion from supporting evidence.

innuendo

is when you say something which is polite and innocent on the surface, but indirectly hints at an insult.

irony

is when there are two contradicting meanings of the same situation, event, image, sentence, phrase, or story.

juxtaposition

is the placement of two or more things side by side, often in order to bring out their differences.

logos

or the appeal to logic, means to appeal to the audience's sense of reason or logic.

motif

is something symbolic that appears frequently in a story.

nemesis

is an archenemy, most often a villain.

onomatopoeia

refers to words whose pronunciations imitate the sounds they describe.

oxymoron

is a figure of speech that puts together opposite elements.

paradox

is a statement that contradicts itself, or that must be both true and untrue at the same time.

parallelism

aka parallel structure, is when phrases in a sentence have the same grammatical structure.

parody

is a work that’s created by imitating an existing original work in order to make fun of or comment on an aspect of the original.

pathos

One of the three basic argumentative appeals, which appeals to emotion.

personification

is a kind of metaphor in which you describe an inanimate object, abstract thing, or non-human animal in human terms.

situational irony

is the irony of something happening that is very different from what was expected.

soliloquy

is a kind of monologue or an extended speech by one character.

stereotype

is assuming that 'they’re all alike.' It’s looking at a whole group of people and assuming that they all share certain qualities.

synecdoche

is a figure of speech that allows a part to stand for a whole or for a whole to stand for a part.

trope

can refer to any type of figure of speech, theme, image, character, or plot element that is used many times.

understatement

is when a writer presents a situation or thing as if it is less important or serious than it is in reality.

vernacular

the everyday, common language or dialect spoken by people in a specific region.