Lit terms (ongoing)

Allegory

a story that is represented through another story

Allusion

a refrence to another literary work in a story

Anaphora

the repition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence or poem

Colloquialism

informal language

Dynamic character

the character that changes between the beginning and the end of a story

Anecdote

brief story to hook someone

Aphorism

a short, witty statement that reveals the truth, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”

Asyndeton

when you use a series of commas with no conjunction, ex. “milk, water, eggs”

Conceit

a long extending metaphor, mostly found in poetry

Synecdoche

when you use a part to represent a whole, ex. “give me a hand” the “hand” represents you as a whole person

Cliche

a phrase or opinion that is overused

Couplet

two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme

Metonymy

when a word is replaced by something very close to the original meaning

Epistrophe

the repetition of a word at the end of sentences

Apostrophe

a punctuation mark used to indicate possession, or the omission of letters and numbers

Bildungsroman

coming of age story

Cadence

inflection and rhythm of someone’s voice

Palindrome

a word that is spelled the same way forward and backwards

Denouement

resolution of a play

Homophone

two words that sound the same but have different meanings

Pun

A play on words

Polysyndenton

only conjunctions between commas

Anastrophe

inverted word order

Caesura

a break in the middle of a line of poetry

Assonance

the repetition of a vowel sound

antihero

character of that has non-heroic attributes

foil

a character that brings out opposite characteristics in another character

juxtaposition

two ideas placed closely to each other in order to bring out differing ideas

analogy

comparison of two ideas

epic

long narrative writing about an important/historical

ad hominem

attack individuals instead of ideas in arguments

farce

type of satire- baffonery because it is so outlandish

anachronism

wrong time period

didactic

intended to teach

chiasmus

a phrase that is reversed in the second part from the first part

euphony

pleasing to the ear

cacophony

harsh sounding word

anthropomorphism

giving inanimate objects human qualities

euphemism

using wording that sounds nicer to describe what it really is

doppelganger

a literal copy or duplicate, can also be opposites

Ethos

Appeal to credibility

Logos

Appeal to logic

Pathos

Appeal to emotion

Mood

How the literature makes the reader feel

Motif

Recurring idea in a work of literature