Reference

Literary terms & devices, explained with examples.

The vocabulary your English class assumes you know, defined in plain language, each with an example from a story we actually analyze. 90 terms and counting. Reading Shakespeare? See our Glossary of Common Shakespearean Words.

Irony & tone

Dramatic Irony When the audience knows something important that one or more characters do not. Irony A gap between appearance and reality, or between what is said or expected and what is actually meant or happens. Mood The emotional atmosphere a text creates for the reader. Situational Irony When the actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of what was expected. Tone The author’s attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed through word choice and style. Verbal Irony When a speaker says one thing but means the opposite, often for emphasis or mockery.

Figurative language

Allusion A brief, often indirect reference to another work, person, place, or event. Hyperbole Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or effect, not meant literally. Imagery Descriptive language that appeals to the senses to create vivid mental pictures. Metaphor A comparison that calls one thing another to suggest a shared quality, without using like or as. Metonymy A figure of speech that names something by referring to a closely associated thing rather than the thing itself. Oxymoron A phrase that yokes together two contradictory words for pointed effect. Paradox A statement that seems self-contradictory yet reveals an underlying truth. Personification Giving human qualities, actions, or emotions to animals, objects, or abstract ideas. Simile A comparison between two unlike things using like or as. Symbolism The use of an object, image, or action to stand for a larger idea beyond its literal meaning. Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole, or the whole stands for a part.

Rhetoric

Anaphora The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or lines. Antithesis The pairing of contrasting ideas in balanced grammatical structures. Apostrophe A direct address to an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing that cannot answer. Chiasmus A figure in which words or ideas are repeated in reverse order across two balanced parts. Litotes A form of understatement that affirms something by denying its opposite. Parallelism The use of matching grammatical structures to express related ideas. Pathos, Ethos, and Logos The three classical appeals of persuasion: to emotion, to character or credibility, and to logic. Rhetorical Question A question asked for effect, not to get an answer but to make a point. Understatement Deliberately presenting something as smaller or less serious than it really is.

Diction & style

Ambiguity The deliberate openness of a word, phrase, or work to more than one interpretation. Connotation The emotional or cultural associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning. Denotation The literal, dictionary meaning of a word, apart from its associations. Diction A writer’s specific choice of words and the style those choices create. Euphemism A mild or indirect word or phrase substituted for one considered harsh or blunt. Malapropism The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often to comic effect. Pun A play on words that exploits multiple meanings or similar sounds for wit or effect. Syntax The arrangement of words and phrases into sentences.

Sound & rhythm

Alliteration The repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words. Assonance The repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words. Consonance The repetition of similar consonant sounds within or at the ends of nearby words. Onomatopoeia A word that imitates the natural sound of the thing it describes. Sibilance The repetition of soft, hissing consonant sounds such as s, sh, and z.

Poetry & verse

Blank Verse Unrhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. Caesura A deliberate pause or break within a line of poetry. Dramatic Monologue A poem in which a single speaker, not the poet, addresses a silent listener and reveals their character. Enjambment The continuation of a sentence or phrase past the end of a line of verse without a pause. Free Verse Poetry that abandons regular meter and rhyme in favor of natural speech rhythms. Iambic Pentameter A line of verse with five metrical feet, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Meter The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a poem its rhythm. Rhyme Scheme The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines in a poem. Verse Writing arranged in lines with rhythm, and often meter or rhyme, as opposed to prose.

Structure & plot

Climax The moment of greatest tension or the turning point of a narrative. Conflict The struggle between opposing forces that drives a story’s plot. Denouement The final resolution of a narrative, where loose ends are settled after the climax. Epiphany A sudden moment of insight or realization that changes a character’s understanding. Exposition The background information that sets up characters, setting, and situation. Flashback A scene that interrupts the present action to depict events from the past. Foreshadowing Hints or clues an author plants early to suggest what will happen later. In Medias Res Beginning a story in the middle of the action rather than at the start of events. Juxtaposition Placing two contrasting elements side by side to highlight their differences. Motif A recurring image, object, phrase, or idea that supports a work’s themes. Setting The time, place, and social environment in which a story occurs. Theme The central idea or insight about life that a literary work explores.

Structure & form

Ballad A narrative poem or song that tells a story in short, songlike stanzas. Deus ex Machina An unexpected, artificial-seeming intervention that abruptly resolves a story’s conflict. Elegy A mournful, reflective poem, typically a lament for someone who has died. Ode A formal, often lengthy lyric poem addressed to a person, thing, or idea in praise or meditation. Prose Ordinary written language that runs in sentences and paragraphs without metrical structure. Refrain A line or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout a poem or song. Sonnet A fourteen-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, following a set rhyme scheme. Stanza A grouped set of lines in a poem, set off from others by a space.

Narrative technique

First-Person Narration A narrative told by a character using I or we, from inside the events. Frame Narrative A story set within another story, where one narrative encloses a second. Free Indirect Discourse A third-person technique that blends a narrator’s voice with a character’s thoughts. Point of View The perspective from which a story is told. Soliloquy A speech in which a character, alone on stage, voices their private thoughts aloud. Stream of Consciousness A style that tries to capture the continuous flow of a character’s thoughts and impressions. Unreliable Narrator A narrator whose account cannot be fully trusted due to bias, ignorance, or instability.

Character

Antagonist The character or force that opposes the protagonist and creates conflict. Archetype A recurring character type, symbol, or pattern that appears across many stories and cultures. Characterization The methods an author uses to create and reveal a character’s personality. Foil A character whose contrast with another highlights that other character’s qualities. Hamartia The flaw, error, or misjudgment that brings about a tragic hero’s downfall. Hubris Excessive pride or overconfidence that leads a character to overreach and fall. Protagonist The central character whose choices and struggles drive the story. Tragic Hero A protagonist of high standing whose downfall arises largely from their own flaw or error.

Drama

Aside A short remark a character speaks to the audience or to themselves, unheard by others on stage. Catharsis The emotional release or purging of pity and fear an audience feels at a tragedy’s close. Comedy A dramatic or literary work, usually light in tone, that ends happily, often with reconciliation or marriage. Tragedy A serious dramatic work in which the protagonist meets ruin or death through fate or a fatal flaw.

Genre & mode

Allegory A narrative in which characters and events consistently stand for abstract ideas or a hidden meaning. Bildungsroman A coming-of-age narrative tracing a character’s growth from youth toward maturity. Satire A mode that uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize and expose human folly.