Literary Terms

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words./The repetition of initial consonant sounds in adjacent words.

Analogy

A comparison made between two items, situations, or ideas that are somewhat alike but unlike in most respects.

Antagonist

A character in a story or play who opposes the chief character or protagonist.

Archetype

A character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life. Often, they include a symbol, a theme, a setting, or a character that has a common meaning within an entire culture, or even the human race./A recurring plot pattern, image, detail, or character that expresses itself in stories, dreams, or religions.

Assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in stressed syllables or words.

Atmosphere

The mood/feeling of the literary work is created for the reader by the writer.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, a line of five feet. 

Allegory

A narrative, either in verse or prose, in which characters, actions, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story.

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, or place in history, or to a work of art/literature.

Anaphora

A figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent person or a personified quality, object, or idea.

Aside

In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker’s words.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be used.

Ballad

A narrative poem that usually includes a repeated refrain.

Cacophony

The use of words in poetry that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds.

Caesura

A pause within a line of poetry.

Carpe diem

Latin for “seize the day,” the name applied to a theme frequently found in lyric poetry: enjoy life’s pleasures while you are able.

Catharsis

Purification or purging of emotions (pity or fear).

Character

An imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (described as a round/flat, protagonist/antagonist, etc.)

Characterization

The method an author uses to acquaint the reader with his or her characters.

Chiasmus

A scheme in which the author introduces words or concepts in a particular order, then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed or backwards order. It involves taking parallelism and deliberately inverting it, creating a “crisscross” pattern.

Cliché

An expression or phrase that is overused to become trite and meaningless.

Climax

As a term of dramatic structure, the decisive or turning point in a story or play is when the action changes course and, as a result, begins to resolve itself.

Conceit

Elaborate figure of speech combining possible metaphor, simile, hyperbole, or oxymoron.

Conflict

The struggle between two opposing forces (man v. man, man v. nature, man v. self, man v. society).

Connotation

The emotional associations surrounding a word, as opposed to its literal meaning or denotation.

Couplet

A pair of rhyming lines with identical meters.

Denotation

The strict, literal meaning of a word.

Denouement

The resolution of the plot.

Dialogue

The conversation between two or more people in a literary work.

Diction

the author’s choice of words or phrases in a literary work.

Dramatic irony

A situation in which events or facts not known to a character on stage or in a fictional work are known to another character, the audience, or the reader.

Dramatic monologue

A lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded.

Elegy

A mourning poem of lament for an individual or a tragic event.

Enjambment

The continuation of a complete idea from one line of poetry to another, without pause.

Epiphany

A revealing scene or moment in which a character experiences a deep realization about him/ himself.

Epistrophe

Repetition of a concluding word or word endings.

Euphemism

Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one.

Euphony

Attempting to group words together harmoniously, so that the consonants permit an easy and pleasing flow of sound when spoken.

Exposition

The opening section of a narrative or dramatic structure in which characters, setting, theme, and conflict can be revealed.

Flashback

Interruption of the narrative to show an episode that happened before that particular point in the story.

Foot

A group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and the unaccented syllables associated with it.

Foreshadowing

A hint given to the reader about what is to come

Free verse

A type of poetry that differs from conventional verse forms in being “free” from a fixed pattern of meter and rhyme.

Hamartia

A tragic flaw, especially a misperception, a lack of some important insight, or some blindness that ironically results from one’s own strengths and abilities.

Hubris

In a hero, it refers to arrogance, excessive self-pride or a lack of some important perceptiondue to pride in one’s abilities.

Iambic pentameter

A line of verse having 5 metrical feet of unstressed-stressed pattern (Shakespeare’s most frequent writing pattern).

In media res

Latin for “in the middle of things”; a plot that begins in the middle of events and then reveals the past through flashbacks.

Irony

The term used to describe a contrast between what appears to be and what really is

Juxtaposition

Placing 2 ideas, words, or images side by side so that their closeness creates an original, ironic, or insightful meaning.

Litotes

A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite.

Meter (rhythm)

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a specific term naming an object is substituted for another word with which it is closely associated.

Paradox

A statement, often metaphorical, that seems self-contradictory but has a valid meaning.