Literary Devices

Metaphor

Comparison without like or as.

Simile

Comparison with 'like' or 'as'.

Personification

Gives human attributes to inanimate objects.

Hyperbole

Over-exaggeration.

Mixed Metaphor

Two or more metaphors that are illogical when combined.

Metonymy

Substituting a phrase with another phrase that is closely related.

Synecdoche

Substituting a part of an object for the whole or vice versa.

Symbolism

Uses an object to represent an abstract idea or concept beyond the object’s literal meaning.

Imagery

Vivid description that appeals to the five senses.

Analogy

Explains a situation, object, or idea by comparing it to a different situation that is familiar.

Connotation

Suggested or implied meaning of a word or phrase.

Verbal irony

When the speaker says something but means the opposite.

Dramatic Irony

The audience knows something that the characters don’t.

Situational Irony

When the actual outcome is the opposite of what is expected.

Juxtaposition

Placing two items side-by-side to contrast them.

Paradox

A statement that seems self-contradictory but reveals the truth.

Understatement

Downplaying the extent or importance of a situation.

Foreshadowing

A hint that gives the reader a sense of what will happen later on in the text.

Allusion

Historical, cultural, or literary reference to a person, place, event.

Repetition

Using the same word or phrase again and again in close proximity.

Idiom

An expression or sequence of words that has a specific non-literal meaning.

Antithesis

Placing opposing ideas next to each other in parallel fashion to contrast them.

Tone

Narrator's, speaker's, or author's attitude towards the subject.

Mood

Emotion that the audience feels in response to the text.

Diction

Author's purposeful word choice.

Alliteration

The sequence of words that each start with the same sound or letter.

Assonance

Repeating a vowel sound.

Consonance

Repeating a consonant sound.

Onomatopoeia

Words that replicate the sound they refer to.

Meter

The structured rhythm of a poem, measured in feet.

Caesura

A strong pause or break within a line of poetry.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence or phrase beyond the end of a line or stanza without pause.

End-stopped line

A line of poetry that ends with a natural pause, usually via punctuation.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhyming words at the end of lines.

Motif

A recurring theme or idea in a literary work that has symbolic significance and helps to develop the narrative.

Soliloquy

is a speech in drama in which a character speaks their thoughts aloud, typically while alone on stage.