June 2013
Westfield Middle School
Common Language Arts Terminology
TERM
Allegory
Alliteration
Allusion
Analogy
Anecdote
Antagonist
Antonym
Appendix
Approximate rhyme
Archetype
Argument
Assonance
Author’s purpose
Autobiography
Ballad
Bias
Biography
Blank verse
Caption
Cause
Character
Characterization
Character development
Character motivation
Chronological order
Cliffhanger
Climax
Complication
Conflict
Connotation
Context clues
Counter-Argument
Couplet
Denotation
Denouement
Descriptive writing
Dialect
DEFINITION
A story in which the characters, objects, or actions have a meaning beyond the surface of
the story
The repetition of a consonant sound in words that are close together
A reference to a statement, person, place, or event from literature or history
A comparison made between two things to show how they are alike
A brief story told to illustrate a point
The character or force opposing the main character (protagonist) in a work of literature
Words that mean the opposite of one another
Supplementary material at the end of a book, article document or other text, usually of an
explanatory, statistical or bibliographic nature
Sounds that are similar but not exactly the same
A character, symbol, story pattern, or other element that is common to human experience
across cultures and that occurs frequently in literature, myth, and folklore
A process of reasoning; statement, reason, or fact for or against a point
The repetition of a vowel sound in words that are close together
The author’s reason for writing a particular work (inform, entertain, persuade, reflect)
A person’s account of his or her own life
A song or songlike poem that tells a story
Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another,
usually in a way considered to be unfair.
An account of a person’s life written or told by another person
Unrhymed lines of poetry
A title or explanation for a picture or illustration, especially in a magazine
Something that makes something else happen
A person or an animal who takes part in the action of a story, play, or another literary
work (static, dynamic, major, minor, flat, round)
The way a writer reveals the personality of a character (direct, indirect)
Authors make their characters believable by using dialogue, describing physical traits, and
show their thoughts and emotions
Any force that drives the character to behave in a particular way
The arrangement of events in the order in which they occurred
A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode
The point in a story that creates the greatest suspense or interest; the turning point of the
story
Difficulties that arise as the character(s) try to resolve the conflict
The problem or struggle between opposing characters or opposing forces (external,
internal)
The emotions or human reactions and feelings that come from a word
Using words and other clues in a sentence to figure out the meaning of an unknown word
Reasoning or facts given in opposition to an argument
Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
The literal (dictionary) definition of a word.
Ties up loose ends that remain after the resolution of the conflict
This type of writing gives a detailed picture of a person, a place, a thing, or an event
A way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain geographical area of a certain group of
people
TERM
Dialogue
Diction
Direct characterization
Drama
Dramatic Irony
Dynamic character
Effect
Elegy
End rhyme
Epic
Epilogue
Essay
Exaggeration
Exposition
Expository writing
Extended metaphor
External Conflict
Fable
Fact
Fact Boxes
Falling action
Fairy tale
Fantasy
Fiction
Figurative language
Figure of speech
First person point of view
Flashback
Flat character
Folk tale
Foreshadowing
Free verse
Generalization
Genre
Glossary
Haiku
Heading
Historical fiction
Homophone
Homonym
Horror
DEFINITION
Conversation between two or more characters in a literary text
The choice and use of words and phrases
The writer simply states the character’s personality
A work of literature meant to be performed for an audience by actors
Occurs when the audience or the reader knows something a character does not know
A character that changes as a result of a story’s events
What happens as a result of the cause
A poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died
Rhymes at the end of lines of poetry
A long narrative poem that is written in heightened language and tells stories of the deeds
of a heroic character who embodies the values of a society
A brief closing section of a piece of literature
A short literary composition that reflects the author’s outlook or point on a single subject
Overstating something, usually for the purpose of creating a comic effect
The start of the story in which the setting, characters, and basic situation is introduced
The kind of writing that explains or gives information
A metaphor that is developed, or extended, through several lines of writing or even
through an entire poem
A struggle that occurs between characters or between a character and a larger force, such
as nature or society (Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, Man vs Society)
A brief story told in prose or poetry that contains a moral, a practice lesson about how to
get along in life
Something that actually exists; reality, truth (can be proved)
A text box pulled out from the main part of the text to emphasize important information or
offer new information that is supplemental
The events occurring from the time of the climax to the resolution
A fanciful, fictitious tale of legendary deeds and creatures, usually for children
Includes elements not found in real life, such as supernatural occurrences and imaginary
places, creatures, and things
A prose account that is made up rather than true.
Descriptive language that is not to be taken literally
A word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be
understood as literally true. (simile, metaphor, personification)
The point of view where one of the characters, using the personal pronoun I, tells the story
Interruption in the present action of a plot to tell what happened at an earlier time
A character who is defined by only one or a few qualities
A story that has no known author and was originally passed on from one generation to
another by word of mouth
The use of clues or hints to suggest events that will occur later in the plot
Poetry without a regular meter or rhyme scheme
A broad statement based on several particular situations
A category, or type, of literature
A list of terms, with accompanying definitions, at the back of a book explaining difficult
words or expressions used in the text
A traditional form of Japanese poetry
A title or caption of a page, section, or chapter
A novel, story, or play set during a real historical era
Words that are pronounced alike but have different meanings and spellings
Words that have the same pronunciation and often the same spelling but differ in meaning
Fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and the reader
TERM
Hyperbole
Iambic pentameter
Idiom
Imagery
Implied metaphor
Implied theme
Inciting incident
Index
Indirect characterization
Inference
Internal conflict
Internal rhyme
Irony
Labels
Legend
Literary device
Lyric poem
Main idea
Major character
Media bias
Metaphor
Meter
Minor character
Mood
Motif
Motivation
Mystery
Myth
DEFINITION
A deliberate exaggeration or overstatement made for effect
A line of poetry that contains five beats consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable.
An expression peculiar to a particular language that means something different from the
literal meaning of the words
Language that appeals to the senses (vivid imagery)
A metaphor that hints at a connection instead of stating it directly
A theme that is not stated but is merely suggested by the details in the work
Introduces the central conflict
Detailed, alphabetical listing of names, places and topics, along with the page number on
which they appear in the text. Usually at the back of the book.
The writer reveals a character’s personality through a character’s words or actions
Using clues that author gives to figure out information that is not directly stated in the text
A struggle that takes place within a character’s own mind. It is a struggle between
opposing needs, desires, choices, or emotions (Man vs Self)
Rhymes that occur within lines of poetry
A contrast between expectations and reality (verbal, situational, dramatic)
A word or phrase identifying a picture, graph, or other illustration
A story of extraordinary deeds that is handed down from one generation to another
The devices a writer uses to develop style and convey meaning
A poem that expresses the feelings or thoughts of a speaker rather than telling a story
The most important idea in a paragraph or essay
A character who dominates a narrative
Bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, in the selection of which
events and stories are reported and how they are covered
An imaginative comparison between two unlike things in which one thing is said to be
another thing (implied, extended)
A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
A character who enriches a narrative but who is not the focus of attention
The overall emotion created by a work of literature
An element such as a character, an image, or a story line that is repeated in a work or in
several works
The reasons a character behaves in a certain way
Fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets
A story that explains something about the world and typically involves gods or other
supernatural forces
Mythology
Legend or traditional narrative, often based in part on historical events, that reveals human
behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining to the actions of the gods
Narrative writing
Narrative poem
Narrator
Nonfiction
Ode
Omniscient
The kind of writing that tells a story
A poem that tells a story
The person telling the story
Informational text dealing with an actual, real-life subject
A lyric poem, rhymed or unrhymed, on a serious subject
All-knowing point of view where the narrator knows everything about the characters and
their problems
The use of words whose sounds imitate or suggest their meaning
A belief or judgment that lacks proof; a personal view, attitude
Combines two words with opposite or conflicting meanings
A statement that seems to be contradictory but actually presents a truth
Repeated elements of the plot
Onomatopoeia
Opinion
Oxymoron
Paradox
Parallel episodes
TERM
Paraphrase
Personification
Perspective
Persuasive writing
Plot
Poetry
Point of view
Prejudice
Propaganda
Protagonist
Pun
Realistic fiction
Rising action
Refrain
Resolution
Rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Rhythm
Round character
Satire
Science fiction
Sequence
Setting
Short story
Simile
Situational irony
Sonnet
Speaker
Speech
Stanza
Stated theme
Static character
Stereotype
Style
Sub-heading
Subjective writing
Subplot
DEFINITION
A restatement of an expression or passage presented in different words and shorter form
A figure of speech in which an object or animal is spoken of as if it had human feelings,
thoughts, traits, or attitudes
A way of viewing situations and facts and judging their importance
A kind of writing intended to convince a reader to think or act in a certain way
The series of related events that make up a story. Plot is what happens in a short story,
novel, play, or narrative poem.
A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery
designed to appeal to our emotions and imagination
The vantage point from which a story is told (first person, third person limited,
omniscient)
An unfavorable opinion/feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought and
reason
A type of persuasive writing aimed at changing people’s opinions by appealing to their
emotions
The main character in a work of literature, often a good or heroic type
A play on words
A story that can actually happen and is true to life
The series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead to the climax
A repeated sound, word, phrase, line or group of lines
The final part of a story, in which the conflict, or main problem, is resolved and the story
is brought to a close
The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are
close together in a poem
The regular pattern of rhyming words at the ends of lines in a poem or stanza
A musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables or by the
repetition of certain other sound patterns
A character with many aspects to his or her personality, possibly including internal
conflicts
Writing that ridicules or pokes fun at something, often in order to bring about change
A story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future
or on other planets
The order in which events in the story take place
The time and place of a story, play, or narrative poem
Fiction of such brevity that it supports no subplots
A comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, than, or resembles
Occurs when what happens is very different from what we expected would happen
A fourteen-line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter
The voice talking to use in a poem
An oral presentation of facts or ideas
A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit
A theme that is stated directly in the text of the work
A character who does not change much in the course of a work
(7th grade) A set of generalizations about a person, group, or organization that allows you
to categorize them and treat accordingly
(8th grade) A fixed, oversimplified image of a person, group, or idea; something
conforming to that image
The way a writer uses language
A title or heading of a subdivision of a chapter, essay, or article
Writing in which the feelings and opinions of the writer are revealed
A minor plot that relates in some way to the main story
TERM
Summary
Suspense
Symbol
Synonym
Tall tale
Theme
Thematic Statement
Thesis Statement
Third person point of view
Third person limited point
of view
Tone
Trickster Tale
Understatement
Verbal irony
Vivid imagery
DEFINITION
A brief statement that presents the main points in a concise form
The uncertainty or anxiety that a reader feels about what will happen next in a story,
novel, or drama
A person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and stands for something beyond
itself as well
Words that mean the same
An exaggerated, far-fetched story that is obviously untrue but is told as though it should
be believed
The general idea or insight about life (the truth) that a work of literature reveals (stated,
implied)
The theme written as a complete sentence.
A proposition stated or put forward for consideration, esp. one to be discussed and proved;
an unproved statement/premise in an argument
In this point of view, the narrator is not a character in the story
A point of view where the narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of only one
character. We observe the action through the eyes of only one of the characters in the
story
The attitude that a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, and audience
A smaller, less powerful character outwits a larger, stronger one
A statement that says less than what is meant. It is usually used for comic effect.
A contrast between what is said or written and what is meant
Language that creates word pictures and appeals to the senses