Literary Terms

Question 1

Antonym

Answer 1

opposite

Question 2

Synonym

Answer 2

Similar

Question 3

Characterization

Answer 3

The way a writer creates and develops a characters’ personalities

Question 4

Indirect characterization

Answer 4

The writer may present the character’s own thoughts, speech, and action

Question 5

Direct characterization

Answer 5

The writer may make direct comments about a character’s personality or nature through the voice of the narrator

Question 6

Static character

Answer 6

One who remains the same throughout a story

Question 7

Dynamic character

Answer 7

One who undergoes important changes as the plot unfolds

Question 8

Protagonist

Answer 8

Main character in a work of literature; the character who is involved in the central conflict of the story

Question 9

Antagonist

Answer 9

Principal character or force in opposition to the protagonist

Question 10

Subordinate character

Answer 10

Important role in story but is not actual protagonist

Question 11

Motivation

Answer 11

Reason for behavior

Question 12

Plot (plot hill)

Answer 12

Sequence of events in a story

Question 13

Exposition

Answer 13

Provides background information, introduces setting and important characters

Question 14

Inciting incident

Answer 14

The conflict is introduced

Question 15

Rising action

Answer 15

The conflict develops and the story events build toward a climax

Question 16

Conflict

Answer 16

Struggle between opposing forces

Question 17

Internal conflict

Answer 17

One that occurs within a character

Question 18

External conflict

Answer 18

Involves a character pitted against an outside force, such as nature, a physical object, or another character

Question 19

Climax

Answer 19

The point of maximum interest or tension; the turning point in the story

Question 20

Resolution

Answer 20

The conclusion of the story

Question 21

Flashback

Answer 21

An account of a conversation, an episode, or an event that happened before the beginning of the story.

Question 22

Connotation

Answer 22

Attitude or feeling associated with a word

Question 23

Denotation

Answer 23

Literal, or dictionary, meaning

Question 24

Diction

Answer 24

A writer’s choice of words and way of arranging the words in sentences

Question 25

Foreshadowing

Answer 25

A writer’s use of hints or clues to suggest events that will occur later in a story

Question 26

Irony

Answer 26

Special kind of contrast between appearance and reality

Question 27

Verbal irony

Answer 27

Exists when someone knowingly exaggerates or says one thing and means another

Question 28

Situational irony

Answer 28

A contrast between what a reader or character expects and what actually exists and happens

Question 29

Dramatic irony

Answer 29

Where the reader knows something the character does not

Question 30

Symbol

Answer 30

A person, a place, an object or an activity that stands for something beyond itself

Question 31

Mood

Answer 31

Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader

Question 32

Narrator

Answer 32

Character or voice that relates the story’s events to the reader

Question 33

Point of view

Answer 33

The method of narration used in a short story, novel, narrative poem, or work of nonfiction

Question 34

First person

Answer 34

The narrator is a character to the story

Question 35

Third person limited

Answer 35

The narrator tells what only one character thinks, feels, and observes

Question 36

Third person omniscient

Answer 36

Story is told from an all-knowing, point of view; the narrator sees into the minds of all the characters

Question 37

Setting

Answer 37

Time and place of the action of a story

Question 38

Theme

Answer 38

Underlying message about life or human nature that a writer wants the reader to understand

Question 39

Tone

Answer 39

The attitude a writer takes toward a subject

Question 40

Chronological order

Answer 40

Arrangement of events in their order of occurrence

Question 41

Allusion

Answer 41

An indirect reference to a famous person, place, or event, or literary work.