Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. It is used to emphasize certain words or create a musical quality.

Ballad

A short, musical narrative song or poem that in most cases recounts a single, exciting or dramatic episode.

Characterization

The methods used to reveal the personality of a character.

Direct characterization: author describes personality in a sentence

Indirect characterization: suggests personality by characters’ words, actions, appearance, and the reactions of other characters to the person being portrayed.

Climax

Emotional high point of the plot or turning point for the main character

Connotation

The suggested or implied meanings associated with a word beyond its dictionary definition.

Positive, negative, neutral

Denotation

Dictionary definition of a word

Denouement

Another name for the resolution to the plot in which the final outcome is revealed

Dialect

A way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or group of people. Dialects may differ from the standard from of language in pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar.

Dialogue

Conversation between characters in a literary work

End Rhyme

Rhyme at the ends of lines

Epilogue

A concluding statement or section added to a work of literature

Foreshadowing

The author’s use of hints or clues to prepare readers for events that will happen later in a narrative

Formal Language

A set of words defined by a means of formal grammar or rules that describe how to form strings form the language’s alphabet

Heroic couplet

Name for the poetic form used by Greek and Roman poets

Each line typically consists of ten alternating unstressed and stressed syllables (iambic pentameter)

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor

Imagery

The “word pictures” that writers create to help evoke an emotional response in readers.

Imperfect Rhyme

Same as slant rhyme

Internal Rhyme

Occurs within a line of poetry

Irony

A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things to help readers perceive the first thing more vividly and suggest an underlying similarity between the two

Monologue

A long speech by a character in a play, spoken either to others or as if alone.

Moral

A message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or an event

Mourn

To feel or express grief or sorrow

Onomatopoeia

The use of words with sounds that imitate or suggest their meaning.

Optimistic

Tending to take a hopeful and positive view of future outcomes

Paradox

A statement that appears to be contradictory but is actually true, either in fact or in a figurative sense

Personification

A figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities

Pessimistic

Tendency to see only the negative or worst aspects of all things and to expect only unpleasant things to happen.

Plot

The sequence of events in a narrative work

Point of View

The relationship of the narrator to the story

Prologue

An introductory section of a play, speech, or other literary work

Resolution

Final outcomes of the plot are revealed…also known as the denouement.

Rhyming Couplet

Two lines of rhymed verse that work together as a unit to express an idea or make a point.

Sarcasm

Mocking, contemptuous, or ironic language intended to convey scorn or insult

Satire

Literature that exposes to ridicule the vices or follies of people or societies through devices such as exaggeration, understatement, and irony.

Setting

The time and place in which the events of a literary work occur. The setting includes not only the physical surroundings but also the ideas, customs, values, and beliefs of the people who live there.

Simile

A figure of speech that uses the words like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things.

Slant Rhyme

An approximate rhyme based on assonance, the repetition of a vowel sound, or on consonance, the repetition of a consonant sound at the end of a word.

Soliloquy

A dramatic device in which a character, alone on the stage (or while under the impression of being alone) reveals his or her private thoughts and feelings as if thinking aloud.

Suspense

The anticipation of the outcome of events, especially as they affect a character for whom one has sympathy, uncertainty causes anxiety.

Theme

The main idea of a story, poem, novel, or a play, sometimes expressed as a general statement about life.

Universal

Affecting the entire world or all within the world, worldwide

Paragon

A model of excellence or perfection

Stereotyping

A generalization about a group of people that is made without regard for individual differences or a conventional character who conforms to an expected, fixed pattern of behavior