Literary Terms ELL

Acrostic

A set of letters (the first letter of each line) spells out a word or a phrase that’s signifiance to the text.

• Example: Roses are red, Oranges yummy, Sugar’s a sweet, Elixir in my tummy.

Allegory

A work that conveys a hidden meaning, through the use of symbolic characters and events.

Symbolism

Use of symbols (often phsyical objects) to represent abstract ideas or qualities.

Alliteration

Same sound repeats in a group of words. The repeating sound occurs in the first letter of each words, or the stressed syllables of those words.

• Example: Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers

Allusion

Unexplained refrence to someone or somethin outside of the text. It’s like making ref to other literary works or ideas to layer associations and meanings from these sources onto their own work.

Anachronism

A person or thing placed in the wrong time period.

Anadiplosis

A word or group of words located at the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at or near the beginning of the following clause or sentence.

Analogy

A comparison made to explain a thing or idea by likening it to something else.

Anapest

A three syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable.

Anaphora

Words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences.

Antagonist

A character who opposes the protagonist of a story but it can also be a group of characters, institution, or force against which the protagonist must contend.

Antanaclasis

A word or phrase is repeated in a sentence but the word or phrase means something different each time it appears.

Anthropomorphism

Attribution of human characteristics to animals or other non-human things.

Antimetabole

A phrase is repeated but with the order of words reversed.

Antithesis

It juxtaposes two contrasting or opposing ideas, within parallel grammatical structures.

• Example: That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

Aphorism

A saying that expresses a moral principle or an observation about the world, presenting it as a general or universal truth.

Aphorismus

It calls into a question the way a word is used. It’s to question whether a word is appropriate to use in a situation.

Aporia

Speaker expresses uncertainty or doubt about something to prove a point.

Apostrophe

Speaker directly address someone that is not present or cannot respond in reality.

Assonance

The same vowel sound repeats within a group of words.

Asyndeton

Coordinating conjuctions (words that connect other words (eg. but, and or) are used.

Ballad

A poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music.

Ballade

Bildungsroman

Blank verse