Literary Terms and Concepts

This set of flashcards covers various literary terms and concepts important for understanding literature.

Setting

The location where the story events take place.

Conflict

A problem in the story.

Resolution

The solution to a problem.

Main Idea

The most important idea within a text.

Theme

A repeated idea within a story.

Summary

A shortened version of the main ideas in the text.

Conclude

To take evidence and make a decision.

Emphasize

To stress the importance of something.

Persuade

To convince someone to do or believe something.

1st Person POV

The narrator is in the story, using 'I' and 'me'.

Alliteration

Same sound repeating at the beginning of words.

Personification

Giving a nonhuman thing human qualities.

Simile

Comparing two things using 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor

Comparing two things by saying something is something else.

Convey

To communicate an idea to someone else.

Infer

To use clues and schema to make a decision.

Justify

To prove an idea with reasons.

Context Clues

Information surrounding an unknown word.

Drama

A play written to entertain.

Dialogue

Words that characters speak.

Captions

Details explaining a picture.

Headings

Titles of sections in a text.

Free Verse

Poetry that does not have a set rhyme scheme.

Stage Directions

Instructions included in a drama to tell setting and actions.

Author's Purpose

The reason an author writes or includes something.

Fiction

Made up stories or text.

Nonfiction

A text of factual information.

3rd Person POV

The narrator is not in the story, using 'She' and 'He'.

Narrator

The person telling the story.

Imagery

Using details to create images for the reader.

Figurative

Language that does not mean what it literally says.

Plot

The events that progress a story.

Sequence

The order of events.

Literal

Means exactly what is said.

Text Features

Any features included with the text.

Playwright

The author of a drama.

Poet

The author of a poem.

Differ

How things are different.

Stanza

A paragraph in a poem.

Similar

Ways that things are alike.

Compare

To tell how two or more things are similar.

Contrast

To tell how two or more things are different.

Quotation Marks

Punctuation that surrounds dialogue.

Fact

Information that can be researched and proven.

Opinion

A person’s feeling about a topic.

Prefix

Letters that are added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.

Suffix

Letters that are added to the end of a word to change its meaning.

To Suggest

Text that influences the reader to think something.

Effect

The result of something.

Homophones

Words that sound the same but have different meanings.