English Vocab

Active Voice

The subject of the sentence performs the action. This is a more direct and preferred style of writing.

Passive Voice

The subject of the sentence receives the action.

Allusion

An indirect reference to something.

Alter-ego

A character that is used by the author to speak the author's own thoughts; when an author speaks directly to the audience through a character.

Anecdote

A brief recounting of a relevant episode.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.

Classicism

Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures.

Comic relief

When a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story.

Diction

Word choice, particularly as an element of style.

Colloquial

Ordinary or familiar type of conversation; a common saying.

Connotation

The associations suggested by a word; implied meaning rather than literal meaning.

Denotation

The literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations.

Jargon

The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity.

Vernacular

Language or dialect of a particular country or regional clan or group; plain everyday speech.

Didactic

A term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral.

Adage

A folk saying with a lesson, such as 'A rolling stone gathers no moss.'

Allegory

A story in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.

Aphorism

A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle.

Ellipsis

The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author.

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.

Figurative Language

Writing that is not meant to be taken literally.

Analogy

A comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration.

Idiom

A common, often used expression that doesn’t make sense if taken literally.

Metaphor

Making an implied comparison, not using 'like,' 'as,' or other such words.

Metonymy

Replacing an actual word or idea with a related word or concept.

Synecdoche

Type of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa.

Simile

Using words such as 'like' or 'as' to make a direct comparison between two very different things.

Synesthesia

A description involving a 'crossing of the senses.'

Personification

Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human.

Foreshadowing

When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story.

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits.

Gothic

Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear, and/or death.

Imagery

Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind.

Invective

A long, emotionally violent attack using strong, abusive language.

Irony

When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.

Verbal irony

When you say something and mean the opposite.

Dramatic irony

When the audience knows something that the character doesn't.

Situational irony

Found in the plot of a book, story, or movie, often resulting in humor.

Juxtaposition

Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison.

Mood

The atmosphere created by the literature through word choice.

Motif

A recurring idea in a piece of literature.

Oxymoron

When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together.

Pacing

The speed or tempo of an author's writing.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true.

Parallelism

Sentence construction that places equal grammatical constructions near each other.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences.

Chiasmus

When the same words are used twice but in reverse order.

Antithesis

Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses with parallel structure.

Zuegma (Syllepsis)

When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words.

Parenthetical Idea

Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence.

Parody

An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes.

Persona

The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story.

Poetic device

A device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words.

Alliteration

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

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Consonance

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of words or within words.

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word which imitates or suggests the sound that the thing makes.

Internal rhyme

When a line of poetry contains a rhyme within a single line.

Slant rhyme

When a poet creates a rhyme but the two words do not rhyme exactly.

End rhyme

When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of a poem’s end rhymes.

Free verse

Poetry that doesn’t have much meter or rhyme.

Iambic pentameter

Poetry written in lines of 10 syllables with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter.

Polysyndeton

When a writer creates a list of items separated by conjunctions.

Pun

When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way.

Rhetoric

The art of effective communication.

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle

The relationships between the writer, the audience, and the subject.

Rhetorical Question

A question not asked for information but for effect.

Romanticism

Art or literature characterized by an idealistic view of people and the world.

Sarcasm

A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded.

Satire

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life in humorous effect.

Sentence

A group of words that expresses a complete thought.

Appositive

A word or group of words placed beside a noun to supplement its meaning.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

Balanced sentence

A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other.

Compound sentence

Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.

Complex sentence

Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Cumulative sentence

Begins with an independent clause and then adds subordinate elements.

Periodic sentence

Starts with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause.

Simple sentence

Contains only one independent clause.

Declarative sentence

States an idea without giving a command or asking a question.

Imperative sentence

Issues a command.

Interrogative sentence

Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns.

Style

The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes.

Symbol

Anything that represents or stands for something else.

Syntax/sentence variety

Grammatical arrangement of words.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work.

Thesis

The sentence or groups of sentences that directly express the author's opinion or proposition.

Tone

A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction and figurative language.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact, presenting something as less significant than it is.

Litotes

A form of understatement generated by denying the opposite of the statement.

Argument

A piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion.

Premises

Statements offered as reasons to support a conclusion.

Conclusion

The end result of an argument; the main point being made.

Aristotle’s appeals

Ethos, pathos, and logos used to persuade an audience.

Ethos

Persuasion by the credibility of the author.

Pathos

Persuasion by appealing to the reader's emotions.

Logos

Persuasion by the use of reasoning.