52 Literary Terms

Question 0

State of having more than one meaning with uncertainty. (Buckle)

Answer 0

Ambiguity

Question 1

Extended metaphor in a narrative with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Duality(Alice in Wonderland)

Answer 1

Allegory

Question 2

Figure of speech in which someone directly addresses some abstract quality or nonexistent personage.
(O taco, o taco, how could I live without thee)

Answer 2

Apostrophe

Question 3

Emotional implications and associations that words may carry

Scrawny

Answer 3

Connotation

Question 4

General agreement about basic procedures, like writing, format, grammar, usage, mechanics and spelling

Answer 4

Convention

Question 5

The basic meaning of a word, independent from its emotional coloration or associations(opposite of connotation)

Answer 5

Denotation

Question 6

Intended to teach a lesson. Authors may sound self-righteous when writing these works

Answer 6

Didactic

Question 7

Insertion of material often not closely related to the subject in work.

Answer 7

Digression

Question 8

Pithy saying. Saying should have compression, balance, and polish.

Answer 8

Epigram

Question 9

Device in which indirectness replaces directness of statement, to avoid offensiveness. (Senior citizen= old people)

Answer 9

Euphemism

Question 10

Applied to any art having bizarre, incongruous, ugly, unnatural, fanatastic, abnormal qualities. (Poe writes like this)

Answer 10

Grotesque

Question 11

Exaggeration

Answer 11

Hyperbole

Question 12

Technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group or as a negative (doctor)

Answer 12

Jargon

Question 13

Accurate to the letter; without embellishment

Answer 13

Literal

Question 14

Writing showing subjectivity, expressing strong emotion, melodic or musical qualities, imagination (dance)

Answer 14

Lyrical

Question 15

Self-contradictory combination of words. (Jumbo shrimp)

Answer 15

Oxymoron

Question 16

Illustrative story teaching a lesson. (Told by Christ)

Answer 16

Parable

Question 17

Statement that although seemingly contradictory or absurd May actually be well founded or true
(The last shall be the first)

Answer 17

Paradox

Question 18

Composition imitating another, usually serious, piece.

Answer 18

Parody

Question 19

Figure of speech that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, or inanimate objects with a human form

Answer 19

Personification

Question 20

First person narrators are generally less trust worthy than third person esp. If narrator is naïve

Answer 20

Reliability

Question 21

Question not requiring a reply or intended to induce a reply

Answer 21

Rhetorical question

Question 22

Speech delivered while speaker is alone on stage, calculated to inform the audience of what is passing in the character’s mind

Answer 22

Soliloquy

Question 23

Has become to mean anything that repeats of duplicates something without variation. Oversimplified mental pictures or judgements

Answer 23

Stereotype

Question 24

Formula for presenting an argument logically. (All public libraries should serve the people. This is a public library. Therefore, this library should serve the people)

Answer 24

Syllogism

Question 25

An attitude or position on a problem taken by a writer or speaker with the purpose of proving or supporting it.

Answer 25

Thesis

Question 26

Repetition of initial consonant or any vowel sounds in closely associated syllables esp. To stress syllables

Answer 26

Alliteration

Question 27

Repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. ( all all alone, alone on a wide wide sea)

Answer 27

Assonance

Question 28

Four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four

Answer 28

Ballad meter

Question 29

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Answer 29

Blank verse

Question 30

Poetic foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables (DUM da da)

Answer 30

Dactyl

Question 31

Lines of poetry in which both the grammatical structure and the sense reach completion at the end of the line

Answer 31

End-stopped

Question 32

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical

Answer 32

Free verse

Question 33

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa,bb,cc with the thought usually completed in the two line unit

Answer 33

Heroic couplet

Question 34

A poetic line of six feet

Answer 34

Hexameter

Question 35

A poetic foot with two syllables, the first unaccented and the second accented ( da DUM)

Answer 35

Iamb

Question 36

Rhyme that occurs at some place before the last syllables in a line

Answer 36

Internal rhyme

Question 37

Words that by their sound suggest their meaning

Answer 37

Onomatopoeia

Question 38

Poetic line with five feet

Answer 38

Pentameter

Question 39

Seven-line iambic pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc

Answer 39

Rhyme royal

Question 40

Poet of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter

Answer 40

Sonnet

Question 41

Recurrent grouping of two or more verse lines in term of length, metrical form, rhyme scheme, or thought

Answer 41

Stanza

Question 42

Three line stanza,

Answer 42

Terza rima

Question 43

Poetic line with four lines

Answer 43

Tetrameter

Question 44

Word or phrase or clause that whose denotation is replaced by a pronoun

Answer 44

Antecedent

Question 45

Group of words that has a subject and a predicate

Answer 45

Clause

Question 46

Mark of punctuation that consists of three periods and indicates that the thought is being cut off or that material is being left out of a quote

Answer 46

Ellipsis

Question 47

A command

Answer 47

Imperative

Question 48

Adj. and adverbs are parts of speech that change or describe nouns, adj. or verb

Answer 48

Modify

Question 49

Arrangement that has one element of equal importance with another that is similarly developed and phrased

Answer 49

Parallel structure

Question 50

Sentence not grammatically complete before it's end

Answer 50

Periodic sentence

Question 51

Diction consists of vocabulary and patterns of arrangement

Answer 51

Syntax