English Term 4 Vocab - Macleans College Year 10 2026

Aside

A brief comment spoken so other characters on stage cannot hear it.

Audience

The people giving attention to something.

Character arc

The change a character goes through in your story.

Characterisation

The ongoing creation or construction of a fictional character.

Colloquial

(of language) used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.

Conflict

A serious incompatibility between two or more opinions, or interests.

Context

Information that helps readers accurately interpret the meaning of a text.

Conventions

The expectations or a way in which something is usually done.

Declarative

Taking the form of a simple statement.

Dialogue

A conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or film.

Drama

A play for theatre, radio, or television.

Dramaturgy

The theory and practice of dramatic composition.

Elizabethan

Relating to or characteristic of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

Evaluation

Your judgement about how effective or successful something is.

Evidence

Facts, examples, or quotations that support your ideas.

Exclamatory

Expressing surprise, strong emotion, or pain.

Expository

Intended to explain or describe something.

Fiction

Something that is invented, or untrue.

Foils

When a character contrasts with another in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character.

Genre

A style or category of art, music, or literature.

Imperative

Giving an authoritative command; peremptory.

Interrogative

Having the force of a question.

Jacobean

Relating to or characteristic of the reign of James I of England.

Jargon

Special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand.

Light and Dark Imagery

Using imagery specific to light and dark connections; light for positive, dark for negative.

Metre

The rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by the number and length of feet in a line.

Middle English

The period between around 1100-1500AD as English grew and became more popular due to colonisation and reciprocal usage of native languages.

Modern English

The period from around 1500 to the present where English continues to change significantly.

Motif

A dominant or recurring idea in an artistic work.

Narrative

A spoken or written account of events; a story.

Narrative arc

The framework that gives structure to a story.

Non Fiction

Something that is based on fact or evidence.

Novel

A fictitious prose narrative of book length.

Old English

The period of time between around 450-1100AD when English was developing vocabulary.

Persuasive

Good at convincing someone to do or believe something through reasoning or the use of temptation.

Playwright

A person who writes plays.

Register

A variety of a language or a level of usage, as determined by degree of formality and choice of vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax.

Rhyme

Similarity of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.

Setting

The time, place, and environment in which a story takes place.

Shared Lines

Two characters share a line of verse through dialogue.

Soliloquy

A monologue spoken alone on stage, revealing a character's inner thoughts.

Stage Direction

An instruction in the text of a play indicating movement, position, tone, or technical cues.

Stagecraft

Skill or experience in writing or staging plays.

Stereotype

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Symbolism

The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Thesis

A statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.

Tone

The general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.

Tragedy

A subgenre of Shakespeare which follows the Aristotelian model of a noble, flawed protagonist who suffers a fall.