IB Lit HL terms list from course outline

Druce, Elizabeth, and Hannah Tyson. IB English A1 Course Companion: International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Oxford University Press: 2007. Print. 277-28

Allegory

A story or narrative with a surface meaning and a deeper symbolic meaning, often representing moral, political, or philosophical ideas.

Alliteration

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.

Allusion

An implied reference to another event, person, place, or literary work that adds meaning.

Ambiguity

Language that has two or more possible meanings or interpretations, either deliberate or accidental.

Ambivalence

The expression of more than one attitude toward a character, theme, or idea.

Anachronism

Something placed in a time period where it does not belong historically.

Anthropomorphism

Giving human characteristics to non-human things.

Antithesis

The balanced contrast of opposing ideas or words.

Apostrophe

Addressing a dead, absent, or imaginary person or abstract idea directly.

Archaic

Language that is old-fashioned and no longer in common use.

Assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words.

Atmosphere

The overall feeling created by a text’s tone, mood and setting.

Ballad

A narrative poem that tells a story, often tragic or supernatural, in a straightforward style.

Bathos

A sudden drop from serious or elevated language to the trivial or ridiculous.

Blank verse

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter.

Caesura

A deliberate pause or break within a line of poetry.

Caricature

A character created through exaggerated features or traits.

Catharsis

The emotional release or purging experienced at the end of a tragedy.

Cliché

An overused phrase or idea that has lost its impact and originality.

Colloquial

Everyday, informal language used in speech.

Comedy

A work that ends happily; often humorous but not necessarily light or shallow.

Conceit

An extended and often surprising comparison between unlike things.

Connotation

The emotional or cultural associations attached to a word beyond its literal meaning.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds where vowel sounds differ.

Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines of verse.

Denouement

The resolution or unraveling of the plot at the end of a work.

Diction

A writer’s choice of words or vocabulary.

Didactic

Writing intended to teach or convey a moral or lesson.

Dramatic monologue

A speech or poem in which a character addresses an audience, revealing character and situation.

Elegy

A reflective, mournful poem, often about death.

Empathy

The reader’s ability to share or understand a character’s feelings or experiences.

End stopping

A pause or stop at the end of a line of poetry.

Enjambment

When a line of poetry continues into the next without a pause.

Epic

A long narrative poem about heroic deeds written in an elevated style.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word used instead of a harsh or unpleasant one.

Euphony

The use of pleasant and harmonious sounds.

Exemplum

A story used to illustrate a moral lesson.

Fable

A short story that teaches a clear moral, often using animals as characters.

Farce

A comedy based on exaggerated, absurd situations and characters.

Feminine ending

An extra unstressed syllable at the end of a poetic line.

Figurative language

Language that uses metaphor, symbolism, or imagery rather than literal meaning.

Foot

The basic unit of meter made up of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Free verse

Poetry without a fixed meter or rhyme scheme.

Genre

A category or type of literary work.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.

Idyll

A short poem or story depicting idealized rural or pastoral life.

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the senses.

Internal rhyme

Rhyming words within the same line of poetry.

Inter-textual

Having clear connections or references to other texts.

Irony

A contrast between what is said and what is meant or what is expected and what occurs.

Lament

A poem expressing deep sorrow or grief.

Lyric

A short, song-like poem expressing personal emotions.

Metaphor

A direct comparison where one thing is described as another.

Meter

The patterned rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Mock heroic

A poem that treats a trivial subject in the style of epic poetry for satirical effect.

Monometer

A poetic line consisting of one metrical foot.

Motif

A recurring idea, theme, or image with symbolic significance.

Narrative

Writing that tells a story.

Octameter

A poetic line with eight metrical feet.

Octave

The first eight lines of a sonnet.

Ode

A formal, elevated lyric poem addressing a serious subject.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sound they describe.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech combining contradictory terms.

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but reveals truth.

Parody

A humorous imitation of another work.

Pastoral

Literature depicting idealized rural life.

Pathos

Writing that evokes pity or sadness in the reader.

Pentameter

A line of poetry containing five metrical feet.

Periphrasis

Indirect or overly wordy expression.

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human objects or ideas.

Plot

The sequence of events in a literary work.

Prose

Ordinary written language that is not poetry.

Protagonist

The main character in a literary work.

Pun

A play on words using similar sounds with different meanings.

Quatrain

A stanza of four lines.

Refrain

A repeated line or phrase in a poem or song.

Rhetoric

The art of persuasive speaking or writing.

Rhyme

Similar sounding words, usually at the ends of lines.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhymes in a poem.

Rhythm

The flow and movement of a poem created by meter and stress.

Satire

Writing that criticizes human flaws through humor or ridicule.

Scansion

The analysis of a poem’s meter.

Sestet

The final six lines of a sonnet.

Simile

A comparison using “like” or “as.”

Soliloquy

A speech in which a character reveals thoughts aloud while alone on stage.

Sonnet

A fourteen-line poem with a specific structure and meter.

Stanza

A grouped set of lines in a poem.

Stream of consciousness

Writing that presents thoughts as they occur without structure.

Structure

The organization and arrangement of a literary work.

Style

A writer’s distinctive use of language.

Sub-plot

A secondary storyline alongside the main plot.

Sub-text

Underlying ideas or meanings beneath the surface of a text.

Symbol

An object or image that represents something else.

Syntax

Sentence structure and word order.

Tetrameter

A poetic line with four metrical feet.

Theme

The central idea explored in a text.

Tone

The writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience.

Trimeter

A poetic line with three metrical feet.

Zeugma

A figure of speech where one word applies to two others in different ways.