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WHS Glossary of Literary Terms
B. Warren
Abstract diction: refers to language that denotes ideas, emotions, conditions, or concepts
that are intangible; opposite of concrete.
Action: the happenings in a narrative or drama, usually physical events, but also mental
changes.
Aesthetic: the study or philosophy of beauty in art, literature, and nature.
Allegory: a prose or poetic narrative that has a second meaning beneath the surface, often
relating each literal term to a fixed, corresponding abstract idea or moral principle; a
story in which people, things, and events have a second meaning.
*Alliteration: the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with
the same consonant sound.
Allusion: a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history
(i.e., a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing).
Ambiguity: multiple meanings that a literary work may communicate, especially two that
are incompatible; multiplicity of meaning, often deliberate, that leaves the reader
uncertain about the intended significance.
Anachronism: something out of its normal time.
Analogy: a figure of speech embodying an extended or elaborate comparison between
two things or situations. Usually analogies involve two or more symbolic parts, and are
employed to clarify an action or a relationship.
Analysis: the careful identification, separation, and examination of components of a
literary work in order to increase understanding.
Anapest (anapestic): two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed.
Anecdote: a: a short narrative, usually reporting an amusing event in the life of an
important person. b: a brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature.
Antihero: a protagonist who is particularly graceless, inept, stupid, or dishonest.
Antagonist: the adversary of the protagonist.
Anticlimax: occurs when an action produces smaller results than one had been led to
expect. Anticlimax is often comic.
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Antithesis: a contrast or opposition; a rhetorical device of opposition in which one idea
or word is established, and then the opposite idea or word is expressed, as in “I burn and
freeze” and “I love and hate.”
Aphorism: a short and usually witty saying, such as: “Classic? A book which people
praise and don’t read.”—Mark Twain
*Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something
nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply.
Archetype: a character, action, or situation that is a prototype, or pattern, of human life,
occurring over and over again in literature. Common archetypes include:
 setting (e.g., desert, snow)
 archetypal characters (e.g., damsel in distress, witch, old crone)
 heroic journey/quest (e.g., The Odyssey, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
Argumentation (persuasion): the act of convincing or persuading an audience, or
proving or refuting a point of view. Argumentation uses one or both of the following
development strategies:
 induction: moving from observations about particular things to generalizations.
 deduction: moving form generalizations to valid inferences about particulars.
In order to establish credibility as a writer or speaker, composers will use a
combination of the following types of evidence:
 emotional (pathos): appeal to one’s emotions; writing or speech that evokes pity
or sadness.
 ethical (ethos): appeal to one’s morality or sense of right and wrong.
 logical (logos): appeal to one’s ability to reason.
Aside: in the theater, words spoken by a character in the presence of other characters, but
directed to the audience—i.e., understood by the audience to be inaudible to the other
characters; a dramatic device for letting the audience know what a character is really
thinking or feeling as opposed to what the character pretends to think or feel.
*Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words; the repetition at close
intervals of the vowel sounds of stressed syllables or important words.
Ballad: a long, narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme; a narrative
poem that is, or originally was, meant to be sung. Repetition and refrain characterize the
ballad, and it usually has a naïve, folksy quality.
Ballad stanza (meter): a common stanza form, consisting of a quatrain that alternates
four-beat and three-beat lines: one and three are unrhymed iambic tetrameter (four beats),
and two and four are rhymed iambic trimeter (three beats).
*Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.
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Cacophony: an unpleasant combination of sounds; the opposite of euphony.
Cadence: the beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense.
Caesura: a speech pause occurring near the middle of a line of verse.
Canto: the name for the section division in long work of poetry. A canto divides a long
poem into parts the way chapters divide a novel.
Catastrophe: the denouement of a drama, especially a classical tragedy.
Catharsis: according to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy, the release of emotion (pity and
fear) from the audience’s perspective.
Cause and Effect: arguing from the presence (or absence) of the cause to the existence
(or nonexistence) of the effect, or result. Conversely, one may argue from an effect to its
probable cause(s). A writing pattern that revolves around a cause for an event and the
subsequent effect of that cause.
Characters: People or animals who take part in the action of a literary work.
Characterization: the various literary means by which characters are presented.
Character trait: quality exhibited through the style, actions, or words of a character that
reveals motive and personality.
Chorus: in drama, a chorus is the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on
stage and comment on it.
Chronological order: literary pattern that flows from the beginning to the end in a
successive time sequence, presenting events in the order in which they occur.
Circumlocution: a roundabout expression; evasive talk; the use of many words where
fewer would do.
Classification: identifies the subject as a part of a larger group with shared features.
Cliché: an expression that through overuse has become commonplace and has ceased to
be effective.
Climactic order: writing pattern that builds gradually, through examples or descriptions,
to a final focus point.
Climax: the pivotal point of a story; a turning point, often the point of greatest tension in
the plot.
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Colloquial: language belonging to or proper to ordinary or familiar conversation.
Comedy: a work of literature, especially a play, which has a happy ending.
Comic relief: in a tragedy, a comic scene that follows a scene of seriousness and by
contrast intensifies the emotions aroused by the serious scene.
Comparison: a rhetorical strategy based on the assumption that a subject may be shown
more clearly by pointing out ways it is similar to something else. The two subjects may
each be explained separately, and then their similarities are noted.
Compare and contrast: writing pattern that discusses both the similarities and
differences of an issue.
Conceit: a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of
literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem; a startling or unusual
metaphor
Concrete diction: consists of specific words that describe physical qualities or
conditions.
Conflict: a clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals between opposing forces in a work of
literature. Conflict may exist between the protagonist and some other person or persons;
between the protagonist and some external force—physical nature, society, or “fate”; or
between the protagonist and some destructive element in his or her own nature. Conflict
is an essential element of plot.
*Connotation: what a word suggest beyond the dictionary definition; the feelings and
attitudes associated with a word.
Consonance: the repetition of a consonant sound within or at the end of a series of words
to produce a harmonious effect; the repetition at close intervals of the final consonant
sound of stressed syllables or important words.
Contrast: a rhetorical strategy based on the assumption that a subject may be shown
more clearly by pointing out ways in which it is unlike another subject.
Controlling image: a conceit or image that dominates and shapes an entire work.
*Convention: a device or style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a
recognized means of expression.
Couplet: two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by end rhyme.
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Crisis: the point of uncertainty and tension in a literary work that results from the
conflicts and difficulties brought about through the complications of the plot. The crisis
leads to the climax—that is, to the decision made by the protagonist to resolve the
conflict. Sometimes the crisis and the climax are considered as two elements of the same
stage of plot development.
Criticism: analysis, study, and evaluation of individual works of literature.
Dactyl: a metrical foot of three syllables, a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables.
*Denotation: the dictionary definition of a word.
Denouement: the unraveling of the conflict; the resolution or outcome of the story.
Description: the picturing in words of people, places, and activities through detailed
observations of color, sound, smell, touch, and motion.
Descriptive essay: an essay which seeks to convey an impression about a person, place,
or object activities.
Details: facts, revealed by the author or speaker, which support the attitude or tone in a
piece of poetry or prose.
Deus ex machina: (“god from the machine”) The resolution of a plot by use of a highly
improbable chance or coincidence (so named from the practice of some Greek dramatists
of having a god descend from heaven at the last possible minute—in the theater by means
of a stage machine—to rescue the protagonist from an impossible situation).
Dialect: the speech characteristics of a particular region or group.
Dialogue: exchange of words between characters; conversation.
Diction: word choice (and sentence structure) intended to convey a certain effect.
Didactic: intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.
Digression: insertion of material not closely related to the work or subject.
Dimeter: a line of two metrical feet.
Direct characterization: the method of characterization in which the author, by
expression or analysis, tells us directly what a character is like, or has someone else in the
story do so.
Dirge: a song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy.
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Discourse: spoken or written language; a formal discussion of a topic in speech or
writing.
Doggerel: crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme.
Dogma: a: something held as an established opinion; especially: one or more definite and
authoritative tenets. b: a point of view or alleged authoritative tenet put forth as dogma
without adequate grounds: an arrogant or vehement expression of opinion.
Drama: a story written to be performed by actors.
Dramatic irony: an incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks
and what the reader knows to be true (or between what a character perceives and what the
author intends the reader to perceive).
Dramatic monologue: a poem spoken entirely by one character but addressed to one or
more other characters whose presence is strongly felt, or to an internal listener or reader.
Dramatic unities: time, place, and action according to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy.
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Time: the play takes place within a 24-hour period.
Place: the action of the play is set in one place.
Action: the play contains one hero and one plot.
Dynamic (developing) character: a character who during the course of a work
undergoes a permanent change in some distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits or
outlook.
Elegy: a poem of lamentation about a death; a lyric poem, usually a meditation on a death
End rhyme: rhymes that occur at the end of lines.
*End-stopped line: a line of poetry that ends with a natural speech pause (usually
marked by a comma, semicolon, or period) because the grammatical structure and the
sense reach completion.
English (or Shakespearean) sonnet: developed by Shakespeare, this form is composed
of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme pattern of abab cdcd efef gg.
Enjambment: a line of poetry having no vocal pause and no end punctuation, but
continuing directly to the next line or lines.
Epic: a long narrative, especially in verse, that usually records heroic material in an
elevated style.
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Epic (Homeric) simile: a more involved, ornate simile.
Epigram: a short and witty poem, often in couplets, that makes a humorous or satiric
point.
Epiphany: a moment or event in which a character achieves a spiritual insight into life or
into his or her own circumstances; a sudden unfolding in which a character proceeds from
ignorance and innocence to knowledge and experience.
Epitaph: lines that commemorate the dead at their burial. An epitaph is usually a line or
handful of lines, often serious or religious, but sometimes witty and even irreverent.
Essay: a short, nonfiction work about a particular subject. Essays can be formal, informal
or humorous.
Euphemism: a mild or vague expression substituted for another expression thought to be
too harsh or direct.
Euphony: a smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds.
Exact (perfect) rhyme: the placement of rhyming words in which both the vowel and
concluding consonant sounds, if any, are identical (e.g., see/be, done/run).
Exaggerate: to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth.
Explication: a detailed analysis of a work of literature, often word by word and line by
line; a close reading.
Explicit: stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or misinterpretation.
Exposition: the setting forth of a systematic explanation of or argument about any
subject; writing or speech that explains, informs, or presents information. In the plot of a
story or drama, the exposition is the part of the work that introduces the characters, the
setting, and the basic situation.
Expository essay: an essay which gives information, discusses ideas, or explains a
process.
Extended (controlling) metaphor: a metaphor that is sustained for several lines or
sentences or throughout a work, also known as a conceit.
Eye rhyme: The sounds do not rhyme, but the words look as though they would rhyme
(e.g., bough/cough).
Fable: a short story (often involving speaking animals) with an easily grasped moral.
Fables are most often associated with the ancient Greek writer Aesop.
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Fallacy: a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument; a failure in
reasoning that renders an argument invalid.
Falling action: the events that follow the climax and lead inevitably toward a revelation
of meaning that occurs at the denouement.
Fantasy: a highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real life.
Farce: an exaggerated comedy, one that relies on improbable situations, physical humor,
and broad wit rather than on in-depth characters and believable plots.
Feminine rhyme: a rhyme of two or more syllables, with the stress falling on a syllable
other than the last (e.g., fatter/batter, tenderly/slenderly).
Fiction: prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events.
Figure of speech: words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of something else; a
way of saying one thing and meaning something else.
First-person point of view: the story is told by one of its character, using the first
person.
Flashback: an interruption in a narrative that presents an earlier episode.
Flat character: a character whose distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are
summed up in one or two traits.
Foil: a minor character whose situation or actions parallel those a major character, and
thus by contrast sets off or illuminates the major character.
Foot: a metrical unit, consisting of two or three syllables, with a specified arrangement of
the stressed and unstressed syllables.
Foreshadowing: use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action.
Framework story: a story that contains a story within another story.
*Free verse: poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional
meter, and nonrhyming lines.
Genre: a division or type of literature.
Half-rhyme (or off-rhyme): only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical;
the stressed vowel sounds as well as the initial consonant sounds, if any, differ (e.g.,
soul/oil, mirth/folly).
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Hamartia: according to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy, the tragic flaw that leads to the
tragic hero’s downfall.
Heptameter: a metrical line of seven feet.
Hero/Heroine: the main character (not necessarily heroic or even admirable) in a work:
cf. protagonist.
*Heroic couplet: two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the
thought usually completed in the two-line unit.
Hexameter: a line of six metrical feet.
High or formal diction: language that creates an elevated tone. It is free of slang,
idioms, colloquialisms, and contractions. It often contains polysyllabic words,
sophisticated syntax, and elegant word choice.
Hubris: according to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy, arrogance before the gods; excessive
pride or self-confidence.
*Hyperbole: a figure of speech using an extravagant, deliberate, and outrageous
exaggeration. It may be used for either serious or comic effect.
*Iamb: a two-syllable foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry.
Idiom: an accepted phrase or expression having a different meaning form the literal; a
form of expression peculiar to a language, person, or group of people.
Image: a word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses—sight, hearing,
touch, taste, or smell.
Imagery: the use of descriptive or figurative language in literature to create a vivid
mental picture.
In media res: Latin for “in the midst of things”; refers to opening a story in the middle of
the action, necessitating filling in past details by exposition or flash back.
Implicit: implied though not plainly expressed.
Inciting incident: interrupts the harmony and balance of the situation; the incident that
causes a conflict.
Indirect characterization: the method of characterization in which the author shows us a
character in action, compelling us to infer what the character is like from what is said or
done by the character.
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Infer: deduce or conclude from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit
statements.
Inference: a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning; the process of
reaching such a conclusion.
Interior monologue: a term for novels and poetry, not for drama. It refers to writing that
records the mental talking that goes on inside a character’s head. It is usually coherent as
if the character were actually talking.
Internal rhyme: a rhyme in which one or both of the rhyming words occurs within the
line.
*Irony: a situation or a use of language involving some kind of incongruity or
discrepancy.
Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet: a form consisting of an octave rhyming abbaabba and
of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or
cdecde.
Jargon: a: the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of specialists or workers in a
particular activity or area of knowledge. b: a special vocabulary or idiom fashionable in a
particular group or clique.
Kenning: a compound expression in Old English and Old Norse poetry with
metaphorical meaning (e.g., oar-steed = ship).
Lament: a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one, or over some other
intense loss.
Level of diction: refers to the three levels of diction: high or formal, middle or neutral,
and low or informal.
*Literal: not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete.
Litotes: a form of understatement in which an affirmation is made by means of a
negation (e.g., “He was not overweight,” meaning “He was grossly overweight.”).
Low or informal diction: the language of everyday use. It is relaxed and conversational.
It often includes common and simple words, idioms, slang, jargon, and contractions.
Lyric: originally a poem meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre; now any short
poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion rather than describing a
narrative or dramatic situation.
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Masculine rhyme: rhyme of one-syllable words (e.g., lies/cries), or, if more than one
syllable, words ending with stressed syllables (e.g., behold/foretold).
*Metaphor: a figure of speech comparing to unlike things not using like or as; a figure of
speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike.
Metaphorical language: a term referring to the use of a complex system of metaphors to
create a sub-language within a common language.
Meter: the measured, patterned arrangement of syllables according to stress and length in
a poem.
Metonymy: a figure of speech in which one thing is used as a substitute for another with
which it is closely identified.
Middle or neutral diction: uses standard language and vocabulary without elaborate
words and may include contractions.
Mixed metaphor: Mixed metaphors are different metaphors occurring in the same
utterance, especially the same sentence, which are used to express the same concept.
Mixed metaphors often, but not always, result in a conflict of concepts.
Monologue: in drama, a long speech spoken by a single character to himself or herself, to
the audience, or to an offstage character. See also aside, soliloquy.
Mood (atmosphere): the emotional atmosphere in a literary work—usually created by
descriptions of the settings and characters.
Motif: a recurrent theme or image within a work, or a theme common to many works.
Motivation: the incentives or goals that, in combination with inherent natures of
characters, cause them to behave as they do.
Narration: the process of relating a sequence of events or another term for narrative.
Narrative: a story told in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama.
Narrative essay: an essay which tells a true story.
Narrator: the character who tells the story, or in poetry, the persona.
Nemesis: the protagonist’s archenemy or supreme and persistent difficulty: cf.
antagonist.
Nonfiction: prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people,
places, objects, or events.
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Novel: a long work of fiction.
Novella: a work of prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel—about
40 to 80 pages.
*Objective (or dramatic) point of view: the author tells the story using the third person,
but is limited to reporting what the characters say or do; the author does not interpret their
behavior or tell us their private thoughts or feelings.
*Objectivity: an objective treatment of subject matter is an impersonal or outside view of
events.
Octave: an eight line stanza; the first eight lines of an Italian sonnet unified by topic,
rhythm, and rhyme.
Ode: a lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and
sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure, which is often patterned in sets of three. Odes
are written to praise or exalt a person, characteristic, quality, or object.
*Omniscient point of view: the author tells the story using the third person, knowing all
and free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why
they act as they do.
Onomatopoeia: the use of words that mimic the sound they describe (e.g., buzz, hiss, or
bang).
*Oxymoron: a compact verbal paradox in which two successive words seemingly
contradict one another.
Parable: a short narrative that is at least in part allegorical and that illustrates a moral or
spiritual lesson.
*Paradox: a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible
elements. Although the statement or situation may seem illogical, impossible, or absurd,
it turns out to have a coherent meaning that reveals a hidden truth.
Parody: a work done in imitation of another, usually in order to mock it.
Pastoral: a poem that describes the simple life of country folk (usually shepherds) who
live a timeless, painless life in a world full of beauty, music, and love.
Prelude: an introductory poem to a longer work of verse.
*Pentameter: a line of five metrical feet. Iambic pentameter is the most common line in
English verse written before 1950.
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Persona: the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may
or may not share the values of the actual author: cf. speaker and voice.
*Personification: a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an
object, or a concept.
Persuasion: writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader to adopt a particular
opinion or course of action.
Persuasive essay: an essay which tries to convince readers to do something or to accept
the writer’s point of view.
Plot: the sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem.
*Point of view: the perspective from which a narrative is told.
Prose: the ordinary form of written language.
Prosody: the study of sound and rhythm in poetry.
*Protagonist: the central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem.
Pun: a play on words that are either identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse
meanings.
Quatrain: a four-line stanza; a four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme
scheme.
Recognition: according to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy, recognition occurs when the hero
meets his catastrophe, at which point he recognizes his flaw and the reason he must die.
Refrain: a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position
in a poem written in stanzaic form.
*Reliability: a quality of some fictional characters whose word the reader can trust.
There are both reliable and unreliable narrators. A reliable narrator has nothing to hide by
making misstatements and is untainted by self-interest. This speaker’s narration is
therefore to be accepted at face value. An unreliable narrator, through ignorance, selfinterest, or lack of capacity, may tell lies and distort the details. To locate the truth in the
unreliable narrator’s story requires careful judgment and skepticism.
Repetition: the deliberate use of any element of language (sound, word, phrase, sentence,
grammatical pattern, or rhythmical pattern) more than once.
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Reversal: according to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy, a reversal occurs when the opposite
of what the hero intends is what happens; a change in fortune, often an ironic twist.
Rhetoric: the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of
figures of speech and other compositional techniques.
Rhetorical shift (or turn): refers to a change or movement in a piece resulting from an
epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, a character, or the reader.
Rhyme: the repetition of identical or closely related sounds in the syllables of different
words that appear close together (usually in verse).
Rhyme scheme: any fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas.
Rhythm: the varying speed, intensity, elevation, pitch, loudness, and expressiveness of
speech, especially poetry.
Round character: a character whose distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are
complex and many-sided.
Rising action: the things that happen that build towards an irreversible climax.
Sarcasm: the use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something but
is actually insulting it. The remark may also be taunting or caustic.
*Satire: a style of writing that uses humor—sometimes gentle and sometimes biting—to
criticize people, ideas, or institutions in hopes of improving them.
Scansion: the analysis of verse to determines its meter and rhythm.
Science fiction: writing that tells about imaginary events that involve science and
technology.
Setting: the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative
poem take place.
Sestet: a six-line stanza; the last six lines of an Italian sonnet.
Short story: a brief work of fiction.
*Simile: a figure of speech comparing two different things or ideas through the use of the
words like or as; a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two
things essentially unlike.
Situational irony: a situation in which the outcome is different from what one would
normally expect.
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Slang: words, phrases, and uses that are regarded as very informal and are often restricted
to special contexts or are peculiar to a specified profession, class, etc.
Soliloquy: in drama, a speech made by a character, alone on stage, directly to the
audience, the convention being that the character is revealing his or her inner thoughts,
feelings, hopes, and plans. A soliloquy is to be distinguished from an aside, which is
made to the audience (or confidentially to another character) when other characters are
present.
*Sonnet: a poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter.
Sound devices: stylistic techniques that convey meaning through sound.
Spatial order: a writing pattern that moves the reader from one point to the next in an
orderly fashion, describing scene.
Speaker: the narrator of a story or poem, the point of view, often an independent
character who is completely imagined and consistently maintained by the author. In
addition to narrating the essential events of the work (justifying the status of narrator), the
speaker may also introduce other aspects of his or her knowledge, and may express
judgments and opinions.
Spondee (spondaic): a metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally stressed (e.g.,
true-blue, men’s eyes).
*Stanza: a group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well)
is repeated throughout a poem.
Stanzaic form: the form taken by a poem when it is written in a series of units having the
same number of lines and usually other characteristics in common, such as metrical
pattern or rhyme scheme.
Static character: a character whose is the same sort of person at the end of a work as at
the beginning.
Stereotype: a: a standardized mental picture held in common by members of a group and
representing an oversimplified opinion, affective attitude, or uncritical judgment (as of a
person, a race, an issue, or an event). b: a conventional pattern, expression, character, or
idea. In literature, a stereotype could apply to the unvarying plot and characters of some
works of fiction or to the stock characters and plots of many of the greatest stage
comedies.
Stock character: a stereotyped character; a flat character in a standard role with standard
traits.
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Structure (organization): the arrangement and placement of the various elements in a
work.
Stream of consciousness: narrative that presents the private thoughts of a character
without commentary or interpretation by the author; the presentation of a character’s
unrestricted flow of thoughts, often with free associations, and often without punctuation.
Stress (or accent): the emphasis given to a syllable, either strong or light.
Style: the writer’s characteristic manner of employing language (e.g., diction, sentence
structure, characters, settings, and themes).
*Subjectivity: a subjective treatment uses the interior or personal view of a single
observer and is typically colored with that observer’s emotional response.
Subplot: a sequence of events often paralleling or in some way resembling the main
story.
Suspense: that quality in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem that makes the
reader eager to discover what happens next and how it will end; the quality that makes
the reader or audience uncertain or tense about the outcome of events.
Syllogism: a form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is
drawn from them. A syllogism begins with a major premise (“All tragedies end
unhappily.”) followed by a minor premise (“Hamlet is a tragedy.”) and a conclusion
(“therefore, Hamlet ends unhappily.”).
Symbolism: the use of any object, person, place, or action that not only has a meaning in
itself but also stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or
value.
Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which the whole stands for the part (e.g., the law, for a
police officer), or a part stands for the whole (e.g., all hands on deck, for all persons).
Syntax: the physical arrangement of words in a sentence.
Tercet: a three-line stanza
*Tetrameter: a line of four metrical feet.
Theme: the central message or idea implied or stated by a literary work.
Thesis: the main position of an argument; the central contention that will be supported.
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Third-person limited point of view: the author tells the story using the third person, but
is limited to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what
that one character thinks, fells, sees, or hears.
Tone: the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject, character, or audience conveyed
through the author’s choice of diction, imagery, figurative language, details, and syntax;
the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work.
Tone shift, multiple tones: tone shifts reveal changes in attitude or create new attitudes.
Tragedy: a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main
character.
Trochee (trochaic): a two-syllable foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an
unstressed syllable.
Understatement: the opposite of hyperbole; a kind of irony in which the speaker says
less than what he or she means
Verbal irony: a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant.
Verse: a line or group of lines of poetry; opposite of prose.
Villanelle: a poem of nineteen lines consisting of five tercets rhyming aba, and a
concluding quatrain rhyming abaa. The entire first line is repeated as the third line of the
second and fourth stanzas; the entire third line of the first stanza is repeated as the third
line of the third and fifth stanzas. These two lines form the final two lines of the last
quatrain.
Voice: the acknowledged or acknowledged source of the words of the story; the speaker;
the “person” telling the story or poem.
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Grammar Terms
Phrases
Phrases: groups of words that do not contain both a subject and a verb. Collectively, the
words in the phrases function as a single part of speech.

Absolute (or nominative absolute) phrase: a group of words consisting of a
noun or pronoun, a participle, and any related modifiers. Absolute phrases modify
the whole sentence rather than a particular part of it. They are always set off from
the rest of the sentence with a comma or a pair of commas (or dashes) because
they are parenthetical elements.
We will have a cookout, weather permitting.
The national anthem sung for the last time, the old stadium closed.

Appositive phrase: renames, or identifies, a noun or pronoun. When it adds
information that is nonessential, it is set off by commas.
Bowser, the dog with the sharp teeth, is coming around the corner.

Gerund phrase: a gerund is a “-ing” verb form functioning as a noun. The phrase
is the gerund plus its complements and modifiers.
Walking the dog is not my favorite task.

Infinitive phrase: the word “to” plus a verb. Infinitive phrases can function as
adjectives, adverbs, or nouns.
To dance gracefully is my ambition.

Participial phrase: a participle is a verb form (past or present) functioning like
an adjective. The phrase is the participle plus its modifier.
Blinded by the light, Sarah walked into the concert hall.

Parenthetical phrase: a phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a
sentence with some commentary or added detail.
Jack’s three dogs, including that miserable little spaniel, were with him
that day.

Prepositional phrase: a preposition (e.g., to, around, outside, after, like, as, with,
etc.) plus its object and modifiers. Prepositional phrases may function as
adjectives or as adverbs.
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
Adjective prepositional phrase: tell which one, what kind, how many, and
how much, or give other information about a noun, a pronoun, a noun phrase
or a noun clause.
The store around the corner is painted green. (Which store is it?)
The girl with the blue hair is angry.

Adverb prepositional phrase: tell how, when, where, why, to what extent, or
under what condition about a verb, and adjective, an adverb, and adverb
phrase, or an adverb clause.
Oscar is painting his house with the help of his friends. (How is he
painting his house?)
Sally is coloring outside the lines.
Clauses
Clauses: a group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a
complete sentence.

Independent (or main) clause: a clause that can form a complete sentence
standing alone, having a subject and a predicate.

Dependent (or subordinate) clause: a clause, typically introduced by a
conjunction, that forms part of and is dependent on a main clause.
Sentences—Purpose
Declarative: sentences that make a statement.
Imperative: sentences that give a command.
Interrogative: sentences that ask a question.
Exclamatory: sentences that provide emphasis or express strong emotion.
Sentences—Structure
Antithetical sentence: a sentence that contains two statements that are balanced, but
opposite.
Balanced sentence: the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their likeness
of structure, meaning, or length.
Complex sentence: a sentence that contains an independent clause and one or more
subordinate clauses.
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Compound sentence: a sentence that contains two independent clauses joined by a
semicolon or by a coordinating conjunction preceded by a comma.
Compound-complex sentence: a sentence that contains two or more independent clauses
and one or more subordinate clauses.
Loose or cumulative sentence: a sentence that has its main clause at the beginning of the
sentence.
Periodic sentence: a sentence that has its main clause at the end of the sentence. It forces
the reader to retain information and often builds to a climatic statement with meaning
unfolding slowly.
Simple sentence: a sentence that contains one independent clause.
Syntax Techniques
Syntax: the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence.
Interjection: a word (one of eight parts of speech) expressing a simple exclamation:
Hey! Oops! When used in sentences, mild interjections are set off by commas.
Juxtaposition: a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas,
words, or phrases are placed next to one another, often creating an effect of surprise and
wit.
Natural order of a sentence: constructing a sentence so the subject comes before the
predicate.
Omission . . .

Asyndeton: the deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses;
it speeds the pace of the sentence.

Ellipsis: the deliberate omission of a word or words that are readily implied by
the context; it creates an elegant or daring economy of words.
Parallel structure (parallelism): a grammatical or structural similarity between
sentences or parts of a sentence. It involves an arrangement of words, phrases, sentences,
and paragraphs so that elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly
phrased.
Polysyndeton: the deliberate use of many conjunctions for special emphasis—to
highlight quantity or mass of detail or to create flowing, continuous sentence pattern; it
slows the pace of the sentence.
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Repetition: a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to
enhance rhythm and to create emphasis.

Anadiplosis: the repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the
following clause; it ties the sentence to its surroundings.

Anaphora: the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of
successive clauses; it helps to establish a strong rhythm and produces a powerful
emotional effect.

Epanalepsis: the repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the
beginning of the clause; it tends to make the sentence or clause in which it occurs
stand apart from its surroundings.

Epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or groups of words at the end of
successive clauses; it sets up a pronounced rhythm and gains special emphasis
both by repeating the word and by putting the word in the final position.
Reversal—

Antimetabole: a sentence strategy in which the arrangement of ideas in the
second clause is a reversal of the first; it adds power through its inverse repetition.

Inverted order (inversion): a change in the usual word order of a sentence;
constructing a sentence so the predicate comes before the subject. This is a device
in which typical sentence patterns are reversed to create an emphatic or rhythmic
effect.
Rhetorical question: a question to which no answer is expected or to which only one
answer is plausible. It is used to draw attention to a point.
Rhetorical fragment: a sentence fragment used deliberately for a persuasive purpose or
to create a desired effect.
Zeugma: the use of a verb that has two different meanings with objects that complement
both meanings (e.g., “He stole both her car and her heart that fateful evening.”).