Literary Terms

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a story in which the characters settings and events stand for abstract or moral concepts

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

pattern of sound that include the repetition of consonant sounds

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

reference in a piece of work to a person, place, or thing in history or other work of literature

Question 4

assonance

Answer 4

repetition of similar vowel sounds

Question 5

blank verse

Answer 5

verse that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 6

cacophony

Answer 6

unpleasant sounding arrangement of words

Question 7

cadence

Answer 7

rhythm or rhythmic construction in verse

Question 8

connotation

Answer 8

association that comes along with a particular word

Question 9

couplet

Answer 9

two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Question 10

denotation

Answer 10

the literal meaning of a word

Question 11

diction (formal)

Answer 11

word choice; language used by educated people

Question 12

dramatic monologue

Answer 12

when a single character reveals himself and the dramatic situation

Question 13

end rhyme

Answer 13

rhyme that happens in the last syllables of verses

Question 14

epic

Answer 14

long narrative poem; relates the deeds of a hero

Question 15

figurative language

Answer 15

not meant to be interpreted in a literal sense

Question 16

free verse

Answer 16

has no fixed meter or pattern; many rhyme or not rhyme

Question 17

heroic couplet

Answer 17

consecutive lines (two) or rhyming poetry that are written in iambic pentameter and contain a complete thought

Question 18

hyperbole

Answer 18

exaggeration used for effect

Question 19

iambic pentameter

Answer 19

consists of five verse feet, each foot an iamb-that is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Question 20

imagery

Answer 20

language that is appealing to a sense or many senses

Question 21

internal rhyme

Answer 21

a rhyme that happens between words within a verse line

Question 22

inversion

Answer 22

reversal of the usual order of words; used to get some sort of emphasis

Question 23

irony

Answer 23

referring to how a person, situation, statement, or circumstance is not as it would actually seem

Question 24

lyrics

Answer 24

song like poem; written to express emtion from a particular person

Question 25

metaphor

Answer 25

comparison between two unlike things to add meaning ot one of them; does not use like, as, than

Question 26

meter

Answer 26

regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

Question 27

mood

Answer 27

way the reader feels when reading a story

Question 28

onomatopoeia

Answer 28

use of words that mimic their meaning in sound

Question 29

paradox

Answer 29

statement or situation containing apparently contradictory elements but might be true

Question 30

paraphrase

Answer 30

summary of a piece of literature

Question 31

personification

Answer 31

an animal, objet, natural force, or idead is described as if it were human

Question 32

quatrain

Answer 32

usually a stanza or poem of four lines

Question 33

rhyme scheme

Answer 33

pattern of rhymes in a poem

Question 34

simile

Answer 34

comparison of two unlike things using like, as, then, or resembles

Question 35

sonnet (Elizabethan)

Answer 35

composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter, used by Shakespeare

Question 36

stanza

Answer 36

group of lines forming a unit in a poem

Question 37

tone

Answer 37

attitude a write takes toward his or her subject, characters, and readers

Question 38

understatement

Answer 38

form of irony in which something is purposely represented as less than it is in fact

Question 39

unstressed

Answer 39

not pronounced with stress syllable

Question 40

extended metaphor

Answer 40

metaphor that is extended through a stanza or entire poem

Question 41

oxymoron

Answer 41

figure of speech that infused two contradictory or opposing ideas to make perfect sense; contradicts itself