Literary Terms

Question 1

ALLEGORY

Answer 1

A story which carries a deeper spiritual, moral, or political meaning below the surface. The characters often represent abstract ideas.

Question 2

ALLITERATION

Answer 2

The recurrence of initial consonant sounds of different words within the same sentence.

Question 3

ALLUSION

Answer 3

A reference to a well-known literary work, historical person, or event.

Question 4

AMBIGUITY

Answer 4

When, for a higher purpose, an author intentionally suggests more than one, and sometimes contradictory, interpretations of a situation.

Question 5

ANTAGONIST

Answer 5

The character in a story who opposes the hero or protagonist. The _____ is not always evil or cruel.

Question 6

APOSTROPHE

Answer 6

When a speaker addresses something abstract, inanimate, or someone not present or dead as if it/he/she can hear the speaker’s words.

Question 7

ARCHETYPE

Answer 7

In literature, a typical character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.

Question 8

CACOPHONY

Answer 8

A writer’s use of harsh sounding diction to create auditory imagery and/or for emotive effect.

Question 9

CARICATURE

Answer 9

A character with features or traits that are exaggerated so that character seems ridiculous.

Question 10

CARPE DIEM

Answer 10

A widespread literary theme meaning “seize the day” in Latin and found especially in lyric poetry.

Question 11

CHARACTERIZATION

Answer 11

The method by which the author builds or reveals a character.

Question 12

COMIC RELIEF

Answer 12

The inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.

Question 13

CONCEIT

Answer 13

An unusual, elaborate or startling metaphor or analogy; a poetic literary device common among the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century.

Question 14

CONNOTATION

Answer 14

A literary device: a suggested, implied, emotional, figurative, or evocative meaning for a word that goes beyond its dictionary definition.

Question 15

COUPLET

Answer 15

Two rhyming lines in verse.

Question 16

DENOTATION

Answer 16

The literal “dictionary” meaning of a word. Used when an author wishes to be precise in meaning.

Question 17

DICTION

Answer 17

A writer’s choice of words. In addition to choosing words with denotations and connotations, an author must choose words that are abstract or concrete, formal or informal, or literal or figurative.

Question 18

EPIPHANY

Answer 18

A character’s transformative moment of realization.

Question 19

ETHOS

Answer 19

A form of persuasive appeal based on the writer’s character and credibility.

Question 20

EUPHEMISM

Answer 20

Politically accepted or positive word when used in place of harsh, blunt, or offensive language for a more pleasing effect.

Question 21

EUPHONY

Answer 21

The use of harmonious, pleasant-sounding words for effect.

Question 22

EXPOSITION

Answer 22

A term used to refer to the background portion of the plot traditionally provided at the beginning of a story. Also used to refer to any time a narrator explains something. More modern authors typically attempt to keep _____ brief as it slows the pace or interrupts a story. It is the tell portion of the phrase show not tell.

Question 23

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Answer 23

Creative language that is not literal, where what is being said is different from what is actually meant. Used to create imagery and/or to explain, clarify, or enhance an idea by comparing it to something else.

Question 24

GENRE

Answer 24

A distinct classification in literature according to what different works have in common in their structure and treatment of a subject.

Question 25

HUBRIS

Answer 25

First used in Greek tragedies, refers to excessive pride that usually leads to a hero’s downfall.

Question 26

HYPERBOLE

Answer 26

Exaggeration for effect.

Question 27

IMAGERY

Answer 27

The use of words to create pictures or appeal to other sensory experience.

Question 28

IRONY

Answer 28

Tension created by the contrast between what someone says and actually means, between what is expected to happen and what really happens, and between what a character thinks and what is actually true.

Question 29

METAPHOR

Answer 29

A figure of speech that compares or equates two different things without using like, as or similar terms.

Question 30

NARRATION

Answer 30

the act or process of telling a story or describing what happens.

Question 31

ONOMATOPOEIA

Answer 31

The use of words that refer to sound and whose pronunciations mimic those sounds.

Question 32

OXYMORON

Answer 32

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.

Question 33

PARADOX

Answer 33

A statement that appears to be contradictory, but actually is not.

Question 34

PARALLELISM

Answer 34

The repeated use of similar grammatical structures for emphasis.

Question 35

PARODY

Answer 35

A literary technique which imitates and ridicules (usually through exaggeration) another author or literary genre.

Question 36

PATHOS

Answer 36

A quality that evokes or appeals to pity or sadness.

Question 37

PERSONA

Answer 37

A voice or viewpoint an author adopts in order to narrate a story or poem.

Question 38

PERSONIFICATION

Answer 38

A type of metaphor in which an animal or an inanimate object is imbued with human qualities.

Question 39

POINT OF VIEW

Answer 39

The perspective from which a work is told, usually 1st or 3rd person.

Question 40

PROTAGONIST

Answer 40

The central character in a literary work.

Question 41

PUN

Answer 41

A play on words that derives its humor from the replacement of one word with another with similar pronunciation or spelling but a different meaning.

Question 42

RHETORIC

Answer 42

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing.

Question 43

SATIRE

Answer 43

A literary work that uses irony to critique society or an individual.

Question 44

SETTING

Answer 44

The place, time, and social context in which a literary work takes place.

Question 45

SIMILE

Answer 45

A comparison of different things by speaking of them as “like” or “as” the same.

Question 46

SOLILOQUY

Answer 46

In a play, a monologue in which a lone character expresses his or her thoughts so the audience can “hear” what the character is thinking.

Question 47

SONNET

Answer 47

The sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter with a formal rhyme scheme.

Question 48

STANZA

Answer 48

Lines in a poem that the poet has chosen to group together, usually separated from other lines by a space.

Question 49

STYLE

Answer 49

The way a literary work is written based on the choices a writer makes for effect in diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, and other literary elements.

Question 50

SYMBOLISM

Answer 50

When a setting, object, or event in a story has more than literal meaning and therefore represents something more abstract and significant to understanding the work of literature.

Question 51

SYNTAX

Answer 51

An author’s distinctive form of sentence construction and arrangement.

Question 52

THEME

Answer 52

A main idea, universal lesson, or message suggested in a literary work.

Question 53

TONE

Answer 53

The writer’s attitude, feeling, or moral outlook toward the subject and/or readers.

Question 54

VOICE

Answer 54

An author’s distinctive literary style, basic vision and general attitude toward the world.