Literary Terms

Analogy: A comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Anecdote: A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or some abstraction.
Bias: Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way that’s considered to be unfair.
Climax: The most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex.
Conflict: A serious disagreement or argument, or a literary element that involves a struggle between two opposing forces, usually a protagonist and an antagonist.
Couplet: Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.
Empathetic: Showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Flashback: A scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story.
Ironic: Using or characterized by irony; happening in the opposite way to what is expected, and typically causing wry amusement because of this.
Morality: Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.
Narrative: A spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
Onomatopoeia: The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., sizzle).
Paradox: A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.
Personification: The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Persuasive: Good at persuading someone to do or believe something through reasoning or the use of temptation.
Protagonist: The leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.
Quatrain: A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.
Rhyme Scheme: The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
Rhythm: A strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound.
Theme: The subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.