English literary terms 1-25

Abbreviation

Shortened form of a word (etc. = et cetera).

Acronym

Abbreviation pronounced as a word (UNESCO, NATO).

Acrostic

Poem where the first letters of each line spell a word/name.

Allegory

Story with a hidden symbolic meaning (e.g., Animal Farm = politics).

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound at the beginning of nearby words (“Peter Piper picked…”).

Allusion

Reference to something outside the text (e.g., “He met his Waterloo” → Napoleon).

Ambiguity

A word or expression with multiple possible meanings.

Amplification

Adding extra detail to make an idea stronger or more vivid.

Anachronism

Something out of its correct time period (a Roman with a wristwatch).

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word in the next sentence (“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate.”).

Anagram

Rearranging letters to form new words (Tom Marvolo Riddle → I am Lord Voldemort).

Analogy

A comparison to explain something (“Life is like a box of chocolates…”).

Anaphora

Repetition at the beginning of clauses/sentences (“I have a dream… I have a dream…”).

Antilogy

Contradictory statement in one sentence (a paradox).

Anthropomorphism

Giving human traits to non humans

Antithesis

Contrasting two ideas to make one stand out (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”).

Aphorism

A short saying containing a general truth or moral (“All is fair in love and war”).

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words (“Hear the mellow wedding bells”).

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions (“I came, I saw, I conquered”).

Ballad

A poem with fixed meter and rhyme; last line of each stanza often repeats.

Bildungsroman

A novel about a young character growing into adulthood (The Catcher in the Rye).

Blank Verse

Poetry with meter but no rhyme (usually iambic pentameter).

Cacophony

Harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds (“crash, bang, clang”).

Cadence

Rhythm or flow of words in a sentence or line of poetry.

Caesura

A pause in a line of poetry, usually marked by punctuation (“To be, or not to be”).