LITERARY TERMS
1. Alliteration – the repetition of the same consonant sounds or different vowel sounds at the beginning
of words or stressed syllables. Example: "seven silver swans swam”
2. Allusion – an indirect reference to another famous person, literary work, event or place.
3. Anecdote – a short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event.
4. Antagonist – principal character in opposition to the protagonist. Sometimes not a person but an
obstacle such as a force of nature, society or inner conflict.
5. Autobiography – a true story of a person's life, written by the person
6. Biography – the true account of a person's life, written by someone other than that person
7. Character – the people who take part in the action of a story, novel or drama. Sometimes animals or
imaginary creatures.
a. Dynamic - a character who changes in a story is dynamic
b. Static- one who remains the same is static.
c. Round - a character whose many personality traits are revealed is known as a round
d. Flat- character while those more simply described are flat.
8. Characterization – the way a writer develops a character’s personality and traits
a. Direct characterization: the method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a
literary work.
b. Indirect characterization: methods may include what the character says about him or her,
what others reveal about the character, and the characters own actions.
9. Conflict – a problem or struggle
a. Internal: a conflict within the character.
b. External: the character pitted against an outside force, such as nature, obstacle, or another
character.
10. Connotation – the attitudes and feelings associated with a word
11. Denotation – the literal dictionary meaning of a word
12. Dialect – form of language that is spoken in a particular geographic area or by a particular social or
ethnic group
13. Dialogue – conversation between two or more characters in either fiction or non-fiction.
14. Diction – an author's choice of words.
15. Flashback – a conversation, an episode, or an event that happened before the beginning of the story
16. Foreshadowing – a writer’s hints or clues to indicate events and situations that will occur later in the
plot (It's like the music in a scary movie when we know that something bad is about to happen.)
17. Figurative Language – a strategy that authors use to employ literary devices such as metaphor,
simile, repetition, etc.
18. Genre – a literary type or form. Drama is a genre of literature
19. Hyperbole – a figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs
20. Idiom - words used in informal writing and conversation that cannot be understood from the literal
meanings of their words
21. Imagery – a word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses:
sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell.
22. Irony – contrast between appearance and reality; usually one in which reality is the opposite of what
one expects.
a. Situational: contrast between what a reader and/or the character expects and what actually
happens or exists.
b. Dramatic: where the reader or viewer knows something that a character does NOT know.
c. Verbal: when someone knowingly exaggerates or says one thing and means another.
23. Metaphor – a comparison made by calling one item another item. Example: "the evening of life" or
"sunshine of our love".
24. Monologue – a prolonged speech by a single speaker
25. Mood – the feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader
26. Narrator – the character or voice from whose point of view events are told
27. Onomatopoeia – a literary device wherein the sound of a word echoes the sound it represents. The
words "splash," "knock," and "roar" are examples.
28. Oxymoron – a combination of contradictory terms, such as “pretty ugly” or “jumbo shrimp”
29. Palindrome – a word, sentence, or verse that reads the same way backward or forward.
30. Personification – animals, ideas, or inanimate objects with human traits or abilities. to think of or
represent an inanimate object as a person. For example, "the planets danced in their orbits"
31. Plot – the structure of a story
a. Exposition: the early part of a story that normally sets the tone, establishes setting, introduces
characters and gives important background information.
b. Rising action: the events in a story that move the plot along by adding complications or
expanding the conflict. Builds suspense to the climax or turning point.
c. Climax: the turning point, the moment when the readers' interest and emotional intensity
reach the highest point.
d. Falling action: in a plot structure this occurs after the climax.
e. Resolution: resolves the conflict in a plot
32. Point-of-view – the way a story gets told and who tells it
a. 1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective
(uses "I")
b. 3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but
limits information to what one character sees and feels.
c. 3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to "know“ and describe
what all characters are thinking.
33. Protagonist – the main character
34. Pun – a play on words wherein a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time
35. Rhetorical Appeal – emotional, ethical, and logical appeals used to try to persuade an audience to
agree with the writer or speaker.
a. Logos (Logical) – uses statistics, facts, experts, and evidence
b. Ethos (Ethical) – speaker establishes self as trustworthy and respectful of the audience
c. Pathos (Emotional) – appealing to the emotions of the audience
36. Setting- The time and place of a literary work
37. Simile – a direct comparison of dissimilar objects, usually using like or as: “I wandered lonely as a
cloud”
38. Soliloquy – a speech (monologue) spoken by an actor at a point in a play when the character
believes himself to be alone.
39. Style - the particular way in which a piece of literature is written.
40. Suspense – technique that keeps the reader guessing what will happen next
41. Symbol/symbolism – one thing (object, person, place) used to represent something else
42. Syntax – the order of words
43. Theme – the underlying main idea of a literary work. Theme differs from the subject of a literary work
in that it involves a statement or opinion about the subject.
44. Tone – the author’s attitude toward the subject of a work.
45. Understatement – the representation of something as smaller or less significant than it really is.