English LangLit Vocab

Glossary of Terms

Accent

A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, esp one associated with a particulate country, area, or social class

Acronym

an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g. ASCII, NASA ).

Ad hominem

a type of argument that attacks a person rather than his/her ideas, words or actions.

Adjective

a word which describes a noun (red, angry, beautiful, considerate)

Adverb

a word which describes a verb; these usually end in –ly except for “hard” and “fast” (He worked hard and ran fast but he ate noisily and sang irritatingly.)