Literary Devices and Techniques

These flashcards cover essential literary devices and techniques that are key for understanding and analyzing literature.

Apostrophe

An address to a person absent or dead or to an abstract entity.

Simile

A comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor

A comparison between two things without using 'like' or 'as'.

Personification

Giving human characteristics to non-living things.

Alliteration

The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sound.

Allusion

A reference to a historical or well-known figure or event.

Analogy

The comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.

Assonance

Deliberate repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Consonance

Deliberate repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds.

Cacophony

The repetition at close intervals of harsh-sounding syllables.

Euphony

The repetition at close intervals of soft-sounding syllables.

Connotation

The emotional suggestions and associations we attach to words beyond their denotation.

Denotation

The dictionary meaning of a word.

Diction

The poet's distinctive choices in vocabulary.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech involving exaggeration.

Understatement

Saying less than what is truly meant.

Idiom

A phrase that cannot be understood by literal translation but refers to a figurative meaning.

Imagery

The use of words that appeal to the senses, including visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory.

Situational Irony

When the opposite of what is expected occurs.

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something the characters do not.

Verbal Irony

When something is said but it has a different meaning, often sarcasm.

Jargon

Language particular to a trade, profession, or group.

Mood

The emotion created in the reader.

Onomatopoeia

The mimicking of sound in poetry, helping to create auditory imagery.

Oxymoron

The use of a seeming contradiction of two words.

Paradox

A situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.

Parallelism

The repetition of identical grammatical form.

Slang

A word or phrase that is universally recognizable within the language, but whose usage is short-lived.

Colloquialism

A word or phrase recognizable to a small cultural or geographic group with long-standing usage.

Symbolism

The use of something tangible to represent something abstract.

Tone

The author’s attitude toward their subject.