Literary Device Glossary

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

Question 3

Ambiguity

Answer 3

An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way.

Question 4

Anaphora

Answer 4

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence.

Question 5

Antithesis

Answer 5

Direct opposite

Question 6

Apostrophe

Answer 6

A figure of speech that addresses an imaginary person or a personified abstraction.

Question 7

Aside

Answer 7

A line spoken by an actor to the audience but not intended for others on the stage

Question 8

Assonance

Answer 8

Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words.

Question 9

Asyndeton

Answer 9

The absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

Question 10

Cacophony

Answer 10

A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds

Question 11

Caesura

Answer 11

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry

Question 12

Chiasmus

Answer 12

A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases

Question 13

Connotation

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Consonance

Answer 14

Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words

Question 15

Couplet

Answer 15

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Question 16

Denotation

Answer 16

The literal meaning of a word

Question 17

Diction

Answer 17

A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words

Question 18

Enjambment

Answer 18

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Question 19

Euphony

Answer 19

pleasant, harmonious sound

Question 20

Flashback

Answer 20

A scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story.

Question 21

Foot

Answer 21

A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Question 22

Foreshadowing

Answer 22

A warning or indication of a future event

Question 23

Hyperbole

Answer 23

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Question 24

Iamb

Answer 24

unstressed, stressed

Question 25

Imagery

Answer 25

Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

Question 26

Irony

Answer 26

The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

Question 27

Malapropism

Answer 27

The unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar

Question 28

Meiosis

Answer 28

A witty understatement belittles something or somebody, particularly by using terms that give an impression that something is less important than it should be.

Question 29

Metaphysical conceit

Answer 29

An analogy between one entity's spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world.

Question 30

Meter

Answer 30

Stressed, Unstressed

Question 31

Motif

Answer 31

A recurring theme, subject or idea

Question 32

Onomatopoeia

Answer 32

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Question 33

Oxymoron

Answer 33

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.

Question 34

Paradox

Answer 34

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Question 35

Point of View

Answer 35

The perspective from which a story is told

Question 36

Polysyndeton

Answer 36

Deliberate use of many conjunctions

Question 37

Pyrrhic

Answer 37

Ruinous; gained at too great a cost

Question 38

Rhyme

Answer 38

Repetition of sounds at the end of words

Question 39

Spondee

Answer 39

stressed, stressed

Question 40

Symbol

Answer 40

A thing that represents or stands for something else.

Question 41

Synesthesia

Answer 41

Describing one kind of sensation in terms of another.

Question 42

Syntax

Answer 42

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Question 43

Tone

Answer 43

A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.

Question 44

Tragic Flaw

Answer 44

The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall

Question 45

Trochee

Answer 45

accented, unaccented

Question 46

Zeugma

Answer 46

Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous, meanings

Question 47

Dramatic Irony

Answer 47

When the audience knows something that the characters don't

Question 48

Situational Irony

Answer 48

When the outcome is the opposite or completely different from what was expected