Grade 10 Literary Terms

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Allegory

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. (character represents something else)

Allusion

Indirect reference to an object that is not related to the context of the situation

Ambiguity

A word or phrase that can mean more than one thing.

Analogue

similar or comparable in certain respects "gills of a fish are like lungs of a human"

Analogy

A comparison between two similar things, typically for the purpose of explaining or clarifying. "Life is like a box of chocolates"

Anecdote

short account of an event

Aphorism

A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation or reveals a general truth.

Apostrophe

addressing an absent or imaginary person

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity "Go slow over the road"

Cacophony/Euphony

Cacophony: harsh unpleasant words
Euphony: harmonious words

Caesura

a strong pause within a line of verse

Connotation

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Consonnance

the repetition of consonant sounds in proximity to eachother

Denotation

the literal meaning of a word

Imagery

Description that appeals to the senses and is visually desciptive

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality "when you walk in an empty place and say its so crowded"

Paradox

a statement that seems contradictory but may be true "chicken or the egg"

Pathetic Fallacy

The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry cloud

Point of View/Narration

who the story is told from, 1st 2nd or 2rd person

Pun

a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word "a boiled egg is hard to beat"

Rhetorical Question

A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer

Satire

the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity

Soliliquoy

a speech that a character makes while alone on stage.

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem

Symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else

Synecdoche

a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa for ex, "new wheels = new car"

Theme

Central idea of a work of literature

Tone

An attitude towards something by the author

Understatement

the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.

Diction

a writer's choice of words

Colloquilism

informal speech

Jargon

distinct/special words most people don't know

Epigraph

a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme

Euphemism

An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant

Foil

A character who acts as a contrast to another character

Foreshadowing

the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot

Hyperbole

exaggeration

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Metonymy

substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it ( eg, the crown is the queen or king)

Mood

How the reader feels about the text while reading.

Simile

A comparison of two unlike things using like or as

Personification

the giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Onomatopoeia

the use of words that imitate sounds "cat meowed"

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms "awfully good"

Inference

A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning