Glossary of Literary Terms
* - Required for sophomores. (All terms are required for juniors
and seniors.)
*DIALOGUE: written conversation between two or more
persons
Action: the series of related incidents or occurrences in a story
or play. RISING ACTION is the sequence of incidents or
occurrences which culminate in the climax. FALLING ACTION,
sometimes referred to as DENOUEMENT, is the final outcome
and clarification of the major conflict and minor complications.
*DRAMA: a story acted out, usually on a stage, by actors and
actresses who take the parts of specific characters. Drama is
generally divided into two types,
TRAGEDY AND COMEDY.
ALLEGORY: a narrative in verse or prose in which concrete
characters and actions represent abstract ideas or moral
qualities.
*ALLITERATION: the repetition of similar sounds, usually
consonants or consonant clusters, in a group of words.
ALLUSION: a casual reference to a person, place, event, or
artistic work that the author expects the reader to recognize.
*ANALOGY: an extended comparison showing the similarities
between two things.
*ANECDOTE: a brief account, sometimes biographical, of an
interesting or entertaining incident.
*ANTAGONIST: the character who directly opposes the main
character in a story or play.
*ASIDE: words spoken by a character in a play, usually in an
undertone, not intended to be heard by other characters on
stage. The aside is often used to let the audience know what a
character is really thinking or feeling.
BALLAD: a story told in verse and usually meant to be sung.
*BLANK VERSE: verse consisting of unrhymed iambic lines.
*DRAMATIC IRONY: the situation in which a character in a
play speaks lines which are understood in a double sense by
the audience but not by the other characters on stage.
ELEGY: a mournful poem, especially one that laments the
dead.
EPIC: a long narrative poem that relates the deeds of a hero.
EPISODE: an incident or series of incidents which is complete
in itself and is also a part of the total action of a story or play.
*ESSAY: an organized paper expressing a particular point of
view.
*EXPOSITION: in fiction, the part where the author conveys
the background material which the reader must know about
the characters and events in order to understand the problem
to be solved. In essay writing, exposition gives information,
explains something, or develops an idea.
FABLE: a brief story or poem that is told to present a moral or
practical lesson.
FANTASY: an imaginative work involving unreal characters,
situations, and events.
CHARACTER, DYNAMIC: a character who grows or develops
during the action of a play or story.
*FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: language that uses imaginative
devices called “figures of speech.” Simile, metaphor,
personification and irony are among the most common figures
of speech.
CHARACTER, STATIC (stock character): one who remains the
same during the action.
*FLASHBACK: a device by which an author interrupts a play or
story to reveal events that occurred at an earlier time.
CHARACTER FOIL: a character who serves by contrast to set off
the qualities of another character.
*FORESHADOWING: the planting of important clues in play or
story to prepare the reader for the events that are to come.
*CHARACTERIZATION: a portrayal of characters through what
they say and do and through what other characters say about
them.
*FREE VERSE: verse without regular rhythm or rhyme.
*CLICHÉ: any trite or commonplace expression that is no longer
effective because it has been used too often.
*CLIMAX: the decisive moment in the conflict of a story or play;
the moment of highest interest.
*CONFLICT: the struggle between opposing forces, ideas, or
significant characters that forms the basis of the plot of a story
or play. There are two types of conflict, external and internal.
EXTERNAL CONFLICT: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs.
society. INTERNAL CONFLICT: man vs. himself (this exists
within the mind of the character, who must make a difficult
decision or overcome a fear).
*GENRE, LITERARY: the type of literature (short story, novel,
drama, poetry, essay, etc.).
HYPERBOLE: a figure of speech employing obvious
exaggeration.
IAMB: the most common metrical foot in English verse,
consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented
one.
*IRONY: VERBAL IRONY is a mode of expression in which the
author says one thing but means the opposite.
LYRIC POETRY: poetry that expresses a speaker’s personal
thoughts or feelings.
CONNOTATION: the implied or suggested meaning of a word or
expression.
*METAPHOR: a comparison between two unlike things with the
intent of giving added meaning to one of them. A metaphor
does not use “like” or “as.”
*COUPLET: in poetry, two consecutive lines of poetry that
rhyme.
*METER: the measure of a rhythm established by a pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables.
DENOTATION: the literal or dictionary meaning of a word.
*MOOD: the state of mind or feeling created in the reader by a
literary work, such as a sentimental mood or a whimsical
mood.
MORAL: the lesson to be learned from a literary work.
NARRATION: the recounting of an event or series of events.
*NARRATIVE POETRY: poetry that stresses plot, incident and
action.
*NARRATOR: one who narrates or tells a story.
*ONOMATOPOEIA: the use of a word whose sound in some
degree imitates or suggests its meaning.
OXYMORON: a device in which two apparently contradictory
words are brought together to express a truth, as in “fiend
angelical.”
PARADOX: a statement which, apparently contradictory, may
be true.
PARODY: a work that mimics an author’s style or thought,
usually by a humorous treatment of a trivial theme.
PENTAMETER: a line of verse containing five metrical feet.
*PERSONIFICATION: a figure of speech in which an animal,
object, natural force, or idea is given personality or described
as if it were human.
*PLOT: the series of interrelated events that make up the total
action of a story or play. The major element in a plot is a
CONFLICT or STRUGGLE of some kind that takes place
between the characters and their environment or between
desires in the characters’ own minds. A plot will introduce the
characters, reveal the nature of their conflict, and show how
the conflict is resolved.
*POINT OF VIEW: the outlook or position from which a short
story or novel is presented by the author. FIRST PERSON point
of view is the telling of the story by one of the characters,
frequently the main character. OMNISCIENT point of view is
the telling of the story by an outside observer who may have
complete knowledge and understanding of the characters and
their actions: on the other hand, the omniscient view may be
limited and thus tell the story from the point of view of one
character only.
*PROTAGONIST: the main character or force in a story or play.
PUN: a humorous use of a word involving two interpretations of
the meaning.
QUATRAIN: in poetry, a stanza of four lines.
REALISM: a manner of writing in which things are presented as
they actually exist in real life without romantic or idealistic
coloring.
RESOLUTION; (solution): the final outcome of the conflict.
*RHYME: the repetition of sounds in two or more words or
phrases or at the end of lines of poetry.
*RHYME SCHEME: the pattern in which rhymes are arranged
in a poem.
*RHYTHM: the sense of flow and movement that comes with the
rise and fall in emphasis.
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ROMANTICISM: the attempt to present life as it should be or as
the writer would like it to be.
*SATIRE: the use of wit, exaggeration, and ridicule to present a
serious criticism of individuals, customs, or social or political
institutions.
*SENTIMENT: an attitude based on emotion rather than
reason.
SENTIMENTALISM: in plays or stories, an excessively
emotional manner of writing intended to produce in the viewer
or reader such feelings as sadness or tenderness.
*SETTING: the time and place in which the action of a story or
play is presented.
*SIMILE: a comparison made between two dissimilar things
through the use of a specific word of comparison such as “like,”
“as,” than,” or “resembles.”
*SITUATION: the initial problem out of which the conflict of a
story or play arises.
*SOLILOQUY: lines in a drama in which a character reveals
his thoughts to the audience, but not to the other characters,
by speaking as if to himself.
SONNET: a fourteen-line lyric poem written in iambic
pentameter, usually rhyming.
*STANZA: an arrangement of 2, 3, 4 or more lines of verse in a
fixed metrical and rhyming pattern.
*STEREOTYPE: (stock character): a commonplace character
who always behaves in the same way and shows the same
traits of character; a “type.”
STYLE: the distinctive manner in which a writer chooses and
arranges words; for example, a formal, conversational, or
ornate style.
SUSPENSE: a feeling of excitement or apprehension about the
outcome of a story or play which keeps the reader interested.
*SYMBOL: a person or thing that exists and has meaning in
itself and also suggests a further meaning, attitude, or value.
SYNECDOCHE: mentioning a part of something to represent
the whole. ex. “all hands on deck.”
*THEME: the central thought or idea upon which a story or
play is based. The theme is usually a comment about life or
human nature.
*TONE: the feeling conveyed by the way the author writes about
his subject.
*TRAGEDY: in general, a literary work in which the central
character meets an unhappy or disastrous end.