Vocabulary Flashcards
(31 cards)
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
Example: to make a man to meet the moral need.
Allusion
A reference in a written or spoken text to another text or to some particular body of knowledge.
Example: Have you read “The Rise of the Coloured Empire” by this man Goddard? 
Antagonist
The character who opposes the interest of the protagonist.
Example: The The lord of the rings, Tolkien creates Lord Sauron as the antagonist to Frodo.
Apostrophe
The direct address of an absent person or personified object as if he/she/it is able to reply.
Example: O’ Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in the stressed syllabus of two or more adjacent words.
Example: Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies.
Connotation
The implied meaning of a word, in contrast to it’s directly expressed “dictionary meaning”
Example: Home literally means one’s house, but implies feelings of family and security.
Denotation
The “dictionary definition” of a word, in contrast to the connotation, or implied meaning.
Example: A house is literally a dwelling usually for a family. 
Diction
Word choice, which is viewed on scales of formality/informality, concreteness/abstraction, and denotative/connotative value.
Example: using “issue” instead of “problem”
Dynamic Character
One who changes during the course of narrative.
Example Romeo is a dynamic character.
Euphemism
An indirect expression of unpleasant information in such a way as to lessen its impact.
Example: “Passed away” instead of “died” 
Flat Character
A figure readily identifiable by memorable traits but not fully developed. 
Example: The evil stepmother in Cinderella
Hyperbole
An exaggeration for affect
Example: I told you a billion times not to exaggerate 
Irony
- Verbal Irony: the use of words to mean something different from what a person actually says
Example: I can’t wait to read the seven hundred page report - Situational Irony: discrepancy between what is expected to happen what actually happens.
Example: John buys a gun for protection, but someone uses that same gun to hurt him. - Dramatic Irony: When the audience is aware of something the characters are not.
Example: Romeo and Juliet try to be together while the audience knows they are doomed
Metaphor
An implied comparison that does not use the word like or as
Example: No man is an island 
Oxymoron
Juxtaposed words with seemingly contradictory meanings
Example: O miserable abundance! O beggarly riches! 
Parallelism
A set of similarly structured words, phrases, or clauses that appears in a sentence or paragraph.
Example: The dog ran, stumbled, and fell. 
Protagonist
The major character in a piece of literature; the figure and the narrative who’s interest the reader is most concerned about in sympathetic toward.
Example: Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath 
Simile
A type of comparison that uses the word like or as 
Example: Love is like a rose
Static Character
A figure who remains the same from the beginning to the end of a narrative.
Example: Nick Caraway is essentially a static character in The Great Gatsby
Symbol
In a text, an element that stands for more than itself and, therefore, helps to convey a theme to the text
Example: purple symbolizes royalty
Theme
The message conveyed by a Literary Work
Example: “The American dream is in decline“ is a theme of The Great Gatsby
Unreliable Narrator
An untrustworthy or naïve commentator on events and characters in a story.
Example: The people at Gatsbys parties like Jordan who spread rumors about Gatsby’s past. 
Voice
The texturel features, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writers or speakers persona. 
Example: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s voice is mysterious.
Elegy
A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
