A Partial Dictionary of Literary Terms
Objective: Review literary terms and use them to discuss literature.
Essential Question: How will this vocabulary help me to discuss literature?
Contents: Prose, poetry, narrative poetry, lyric poetry, literary device, literal language, figurative
language, idiom, imagery, simile, metaphor, analogy, hyperbole, repetition, irony, symbol,
allusion, personification, mood, tone, theme
Vocabulary:
Word: Prose
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun; language that is not written in any
special way; “normal” writing; follows
standard rules and conventions
Author’s Examples & Your Notes
See most books.
Your example:
Word: Poetry
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, Language that is written in an
elevated or unusual manner in order to
create an artistic impression – follows its
own rules
Your example:
Word: narrative poetry
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, poetry that tells a story
Your example:
Word: lyric poetry
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, Poetry that explains or shares ideas
without a coherent story
Your example:
See most poetry
Vocabulary:
Word: literary device
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, something used to gain an artistic
effect; for example: a metaphor
Your example:
Word: literal language
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, language that is direct and realistic
Example: The dresser was green and tall.
Your example:
Word: figurative language
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, language that is not literally true, but
suggestive of the truth (used for imagery,
etc)
Example: The dresser was a tall green cliff,
begging to be climbed.
Your example:
Word: idiom
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, an expression or figure of speech
Example: The dresser was as tall as a giraffe
and as green as a frog.
Your example:
Author’s Examples & Your Notes
Vocabulary:
Word: imagery
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, anything in literature that calls up
sensations of sight, taste, smell, heat, touch
or pressure
Example: The sun glimmered on the
swirling dust motes, dancing across the
students’ desks with the promise of warm
summers awaiting them.
Your example:
Word: simile
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, a comparison between two different
things using “like” or “as”
Example: The omnipresent dresser, a
lurking reminder of his betrayal, was as
loathsome to me as my father.
Your example:
Word: metaphor
Definition & Part of Speech:
noun, a comparison between two different
things that does not use words like “like” or
“as”
Example: The dresser was my albatross, my
terrible reminder of the devastation of my
home.
Your example:
Author’s Examples & Your Notes
Vocabulary:
Word: analogy
Definition & Part of Speech:
noun, a comparison of two
relationships
Example: As the mouse watches the
cat, so did the students watch the
teacher.
Your example:
Word: hyberbole
Definition & Part of Speech:
noun, exaggeration
Example: I have so much homework
that I’m going to die before I finish it.
Your example:
Word: repetition
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, the process of repeating, used
for emphasis, rhythm and effect in
literature
Example: The tapping, tapping,
tapping of the pencil on Stew’s desk
only made me want to murder him
more.
Your example:
Author’s Examples & Your
Notes
Vocabulary:
Word: irony
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, the opposite of what is expected
(verbal, situational, dramatic)
Example: Though every spare space in the
room was stuffed with clothes, the dresser
was completely, totally devoid of any
contents.
Your example:
Word: symbol
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, A thing or action that is made to
mean more than itself; eg: a rose to show
love.
Example: My father had left the thing to rot
in my room when he abandoned us for his
other family.
Your example:
Word: allusion
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, a reference to something outside the
text
Example: The dresser, Godzilla like, had
bumbled senselessly into my life, destroying
all it touched.
Your example:
Author’s Examples & Your Notes
Vocabulary:
Word: personification
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, a description that gives human
qualities to non-human things
Example: The dresser seemed to plot my
demise as it tower ominously above me.
Your example:
Word: mood
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, The feelings the author is trying to
create in the reader, the “feel” of the setting
and story.
Your example:
Word: tone
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, The emotion of the speaker in a
written work
Your example:
Word: theme
Definition & Part of Speech:
Noun, The message of a literary work; the
author’s position on the central topic of the
book.
Your example:
Author’s Examples & Your Notes