Literary Devices vocab

Litote

An understatement used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive

Hyperbole

An exaggeration

Epistrophe

Repetition at the end of successive sentences.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds

1st person

The narrator is a person in the story, telling the story from their own point of view. (Uses I)

Hypophora

Speaker poses a question and then answers it

Epanalepsis

The repetition of the initial part of a sentence at the end of that same sentence.

Asyndeton

Absence of conjunctions

3rd person omniscient

Narrator knows every character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

Chiasmus

Concepts repeated in reverse order

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

3rd person limited

Narrator knows the thoughts, feelings and motivations of one character

Colloquialism

Informal language

Juxtaposition

Two things placed closely together for contrasting effect

3rd person objective

Narrator reports the events that take place without knowing the motivations or thoughts of any of the characters.

Ambiguity

Open to more than one interpretation

Alliteration

Repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.

Anecdote

A short story about a real person or event

2nd person

The narrator describes what "you" do

Zeugma

When a word applies to two things in different senses

Polysyndeton

Repetition of conjunctions in close succession

Anaphora

Repetition at the beginning of successive sentences

Aphorism

A concise or memorable expression of a general truth or principle.