Vocab Words Flashcards
(103 cards)
1
Q
Allegory
A
A prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning
2
Q
Alliteration
A
Repetition of a similar initial sound usually consonants
3
Q
Allusion
A
A reference to literary or historical event, person, place.
4
Q
Anapestic
A
Metric foot with two unstressed followed by one stressed
5
Q
Anaphora
A
Regular repetition of same word or phrase at the beginning. ( I have a dream)
6
Q
Anecdote
A
A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of lit
7
Q
Antagonist
A
Any force that is in opposition of the main character
8
Q
Antithesis
A
The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words
9
Q
Apostrophe
A
An address or invocation to something inanimate
10
Q
Archetype
A
Recurrent designs, patterns of actions, character types, themes or images
11
Q
Assonance
A
A repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds
12
Q
Asyndeton
A
A style in which conjunctions are omitted (I came I saw I conquered)
13
Q
Attitude
A
The sense expressed by the tone of voice and the mood
14
Q
Ballad
A
A narrative poem that is meant to be sung
15
Q
Ballad stanza
A
A common stanza form consisting of quatrain that has four and three beat lines
16
Q
Blank verse
A
Verse form that most resembles common speech
17
Q
Caesura
A
A pause in a line of verse
18
Q
Caricature
A
A depiction of a characters features in exaggeration
19
Q
Chiasmus
A
Terms are reversed in parallel lines (pleasures a sin and sins a pleasure)
20
Q
Colloquial
A
Ordinary language the vernacular
21
Q
Conceit
A
Comparison of two unlikely things. Extended metaphor
22
Q
Connotation
A
What is suggested by a word, apart from what it describes (sweet,gay)
23
Q
Consonance
A
Repetition of two or more consonance
24
Q
Couplet
A
Two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that together present a single idea or connection.
25
Dactylic
A metric foot in poetry that consists of two stressed and one unstressed syllable
26
Denotation
A direct and specific meaning often Referred to as dictionary meaning of word.
27
Dialect
The language and speech of specific region or area
28
Diction
The specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect.
29
Dramatic monologue
A monologue spoke to an imaginary audience
30
Elegy
A poem written about someone's death
31
Enjambment
A continuation of a sentence from one line to another.
32
Epic
A poem that celebrates heroes or heroines
33
Exposition
Sets the scene and introduces the characters
34
Extended metaphor
A detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work
35
Fable
A legend for a short moral story often using animals as characters
36
Falling action
The part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled
37
Farce
A scene that is characterized by broad humor wild antics and often slapstick and physical humor
38
Foreshadowing
A hint of the future before hand
39
Formal diction
Language that is lofty dignified and impersonal
40
Flashback
Retrospection where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narrative
41
Free verse
Poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter and non-rhyming lines
42
Genre
A type or class of literature such as epic or narrative or poetry or belles letters
43
Hyperbole
Overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. Like I am starving
44
Iambic
A metric foot in poetry that consist of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
45
Imagery
Broadly defined any sensory detail or evocation in a work more narrowly the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling to call to mind an idea or to describe an object
46
Informal diction
Language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction
47
In Medias res
Opening a story in the middle of the action
48
Irony
A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant
49
Jargon
Specialized or technical language of a trade profession or similar group
50
Juxtaposition
The location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another
51
Limited point of view
A perspective confined to a single character
52
Litote
A figure of speech that emphasizes it's subject by conscious understatement
53
Loose sentence
A sentence grammatically complete and usually stating its main idea before the end
54
Lyric
Originally designated poems meant to be sung to the accompaniment of A lyre
55
Message
A misleading term for theme, the central idea or statement of a story
56
Metaphor
One thing pictured as if it were something else
57
Meter
The more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
58
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something For example the White House announced today Or the pen is mightier than the sword
59
Mood
A feeling or ambience resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writers attitude and point of view
60
Motif
A recurrent device formula or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event
61
Narrative structure
A textual organization based on sequences of connected events usually presented in a straightforward chronological framework
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Narrator
The character who tells the story
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Occasional poem
A poem written about or for a specific occasion public or private
64
Ode
A lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment elevated in style and sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure
65
Omniscient point of view
Also called unlimited focus a perspective that could be seen from one character then another's or can be moved in or out of the mind of any character at any time
66
Onomatopoeia
A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes for example buzz bam
67
Overstatement
Exaggerated language
68
Oxymoron
A figure of speech that combines two contradictory elements For example jumbo shrimp
69
Parable
A short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of a analogy. For example it is often found in the Bible
70
Paradox
A statement that seems contradictory but may actually be true for example fight for peace
71
Parallel structure
The use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts. for example Jane likes reading writing and skiing
72
Parody
A work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original
73
Pastoral
A work that describes the simple life of countryfolk
74
Periodic sentence
A sentence which is not grammatically complete until the end
75
Persona
The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual character
76
Personification
Giving a nonhuman object human qualities
77
Petrarchan sonnet
A sonnet form that divides the poem into one section of eight lines and a second section of six lines
78
Plot
The arrangement of the narration based on the cause effect relationship of the events
79
Protagonist
The main character in the work you may or may not be Heroic
80
Quitrain
A poetic stanza of four lines
81
Realism
The practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail
82
Refrain
A repeated stanza or line in a poem or song
83
Rising action
The development of action in a work usually at the beginning
84
Rhetorical question
A question that is asked simply for stylistic affect and is not expected to be answered
85
Rhyme
The repetition of the same or similar sounds most often at the ends of lines
86
Rhythm
The modulation of weak and strong elements in the flow of speech
87
Sarcasm
A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually harshly or bitterly critical
88
Satire
A literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure
89
Scansion
The analysis of verse to show it's meter
90
Setting
The time and place of the action in a story poem or play
91
Shakespearean sonnet
Also called an English sonnet a sonnet form that divides the poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines
92
Shaped verse
Another name for concrete poetry poetry that is shaped to look like an object
93
Simile
direct explicit comparison of one thing to another
94
Soliloquy
A monologue in which the character and they play is alone and speaking only to himself or herself
95
Speaker
The person not necessarily the author who is the voice of a poem
96
Stanza
A section of a poem Demarcated by extra line spacing
97
Stereotype
A characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that some one aspect such as gender age Ethnic or national identity religion occupation marital status and so on are predictably accompanied by certain character traits actions even values
98
Stock character
One who appears in a number of stories or plays such as the cruel stepmother
99
Structure
The organization or arrangement of the various elements in a work
100
Style
A distinctive manner of expression the author expresses this through diction rhythm imagery and so on
101
Symbolism
Something that figuratively represents something else
102
Synecdoche
When a part is used to signify a whole for example all hands on deck
103
Syntax
The way words are put together to form phrases clauses and sentences
