GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS

ALLEGORY: the representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures or

events in narrative, dramatic or pictorial form

ALLITERATION: the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of

several words in a line of poetry. E.g. Marilyn Monroe

AMBIGUITY: when an author leaves out details/ information or is unclear about an

event so the reader will use his/her imagination

ANALOGY: it makes a comparison between two or more things that are similar in
some ways but otherwise unalike

ANAPHORA: repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines in a

poem

ANECDOTE: a short story or joke told at the beginning of a speech to gain the
audiences attention

ANTAGONIST: the protagonists adversary

ANTI-CLIMATIC: when the ending of the plot in poetry or prose is unfulfilling or

lackluster

APOSTROPHE: when a character speaks to a character or object that is not present or

is unable to respond

ASSONANCE: the repetition of the same vowel sound in a phrase or line of poetry

ANTITHESIS: opposition or contrast of ideas or words in a parallel construction

ANADIPLOSIS: (Greek for doubling back) the word or phrase that concludes one
line or clause is repeated at the beginning of the next

ANASTROPHE: inversion of the usual, normal or logical order of the parts of a

sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion

ANTIMETABOLE: repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical

order. Example: Moliere: One should eat to live, not live to eat. In poetry, this is
called chiasmus
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APOSIOPESIS: the speaker fails to complete his sentence, (seemingly) overpowered
by his emotions

ASYNDETON: the omission of conjunctions to coordinate phrases, clauses or words

where normally conjunctions would be used

ASIDE: words spoken aside, especially (on the stage) words that other persons (on the
stage) are supposed not to hear

ALLUSION: a brief reference to a historical or literary figure, event or object

ANAPEST: an anapestic foot has three syllables. The first two are unstressed with the
third stressed

ANTHROPOMORPHISM: attributing human characteristics to an animal or

inanimate object (personification)

APHORISM: brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about
life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim or epigram

APPOSITION: placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate

elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification or modification of the first
(often set off by a colon)

ARCHETYPE: recurrent narrative designs, character, types and themes

AUTHOR ARGUMENT: the position an author puts forward, supported by reasons

ATMOSPHERE: or mood is the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or

passage

ANTIHERO: central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with
heroes, may lack courage, grace, intelligence or moral scruples

AUTHOR PURPOSE: his/ her main reason for writing. For example, an author may
want to entertain, inform, or persuade the reader. Sometimes an author is trying to teach
a moral lesson or reflect on an experience. An author may have more than one purpose
for writing

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BLANK VERSE: name for unrhymed iambic pentameter. An iamb is a metrical foot in
which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. In iambic pentameter
there are five iambs per line making ten syllables

BALANCE: constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and
importance. Sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special effect as well

BATHOS: a sudden descent from a noble and beautiful style to a foolish and ridiculous
one. It is a form of anticlimax

CHARACTER: a person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.
They are usually classified as flat or round. A flat character is one-sided and often
stereotypical. A round character is fully developed and exhibits many traits, often both
faults and virtues. Characters can also be classified as dynamic or static. A dynamic
character is one who changes or grows during the course of the work. A static character
is one who does not change

CLIMAX: the turning point in the plot or the high point of action

COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE: informal, conversational language. Colloquialisms are

phrases or sayings that are indicative of a specific region

CONNOTATION: an idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or

thing, i.e. bat = evil

CONVENTION: an understanding between a reader and a writer about certain details

of a story that does not need to be explained

CONSONANCE: the repetition of consonant sounds in a phrase or line of poetry. The

consonant sound may be at the beginning, middle or end of the word

COUPLET: two rhyming lines in poetry

CHIASMUS: from the shape of the Greek letter chi (x), two corresponding pairs are
arranged in inverted, mirror-like order (a-b, b-a)

CLICH: a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because
of overuse.

CAESURA: a pause or break in a line of poetry

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CHARACTERIZATION: the way an author creates and develops the characters in the
story. This includes appearance, personality, behavior, beliefs and relationships with
other characters

CONFLICT: a struggle between a character and another opposite force. There are four
types of conflict: a- person vs. self, b- person vs. person, c- person vs. society and d-
person vs. nature

COMEDY: drama that is meant to amuse the audience through wit, humor, subtlety
and character

CONCRETE POEM: it is one with a shape that suggests its subject. The poet arranges
the letters, punctuation, and lines to create an image or picture on the page

CULTURAL CONTEXT: the cultural context of a literary work is the economic,

social and historical environment of the characters. This includes the attitudes and
customs of that culture and historical period

COLLOQUIALISM: a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal

writing but is inappropriate for formal situations

CONCEIT: an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly
different. Often an extended metaphor

CONFESSIONAL POETRY: a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that

uses intimate material from the poets life

DESCRIPTION: it is a portrait, in words, of a person, place or object. Descriptive

writing uses images that appeal to the five senses sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell

DEVELOPMENT: see Plot

DIALOGUE: a conversation between characters. In poems, novels and short stories.

Dialogue is usually set off by quotation marks to indicate a speakers exact words

DRAMA: a story written to be performed by actors. One can also read a script or
written version and imagine the action. The script is made up of dialogues and stage
directions. The stage directions, usually printed in italics, tell how the actors should
look, move and speak. They also describe the setting, sound effects and lighting.

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Dramas are often divided into parts called acts. The acts are often divided into smaller
parts called scenes

DEUS EX MACHINA: term that refers to a character or force that appears at the end
of a story or play to help resolve conflict. The word means God from a machine. In
ancient Greek drama, Gods were lowered onto the stage by a mechanism to extricate
characters from a seemingly hopeless situation. The phrase has come to mean any turn
of events that solve the characters problems through an unexpected and unlikely
intervention

DICTION: word choice or the use of words in speech or writing

DENOUEMENT: (day-new-man) the final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or

narrative plot

DOPPELGANGER: the alter ego of a character, the suppressed side of ones

personality that is usually unaccepted by society: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hide. Mr. Edward Hyde (hide) is Dr. Jekylls evil side

DENOTATION: the formal or official meaning of a word, separated from any other
associations or acquired meaning

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE: a poem in which a single character gives a speech,

usually to an unknown but silent listener, that reveals something about himself as he is a
significant or dramatic situation

DACTYL: a dactylic foot has three syllables beginning with a stressed syllable, the
other two unstressed

DIDACTIC: form of fiction or non-fiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or

provides a model of correct behavior or thinking

ELEGY: a poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE: deliberate use of language by a writer to instill a feeling of

some kind

ENJAMBMENT: the continuation of reading one line of a poem to the next with no
pause, a run-on line

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EPANALEPSIS: device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or
phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence.

EPIC: an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the

feats of a legendary or traditional hero

EPIGRAPH: a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of

the theme

EPILOGUE: a short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the
conclusion of a play, or in a novel the epilogue is a short explanation at the end of a
book which indicates what happens after the plot ends

EPIPHANY: sudden enlightenment or realization and a profound new outlook or

understanding about the world usually attained while doing everyday mundane
activities

EPISTOLARY: used to describe a novel that tells its story through letters written from
one character to another

EUPHEMISM: the act of substituting a harsh, blunt or offensive comment for a more
politically accepted or positive one

EUPHONY: a succession of words which are pleasing to the ear. These words may be
alliterative, utilize consonance or assonance and are often used in poetry but also seen in
prose

EXPANSION: adds an unstressed syllable and a contraction or elision removes an

unstressed syllable in order to maintain the rhythmic meter of a line. This practice
explains some words frequently used in poetry such as th in place of the, oer in
place of over, and tis or twas in place of it is or it was

EPISTROPHE: a word or expression is repeated at the end of successive phrases,

clauses or lines

EPIZEUXIS: the repetition of the same words immediately next to each other

ELLIPSIS: a word or phrase in a sentence is omitted through implied by the context

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EPIGRAM: a brief, pointed statement, often showing a contrast or an apparent
contradiction. Many epigrams are also proverbs. They are combination of ideas that
might seem to be contradictory or are rarely thought together

EPITHET: an adjective or descriptive phrase, esp. of praise or blame used to a person

EUPHUISM: an indirect or more pleasant way of expressing something unpleasant

EXPOSITION: in the plot of a story or a drama, the exposition, or introduction, is the

part of the work that introduces the characters, setting and basic situation

FABLE: a usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often
employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans

FARCE: a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are
involved in silly, far-fetched situations

FANTASY: it is highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real
life. It often includes supernatural elements, stories that resemble fairy tales, stories that
deal with imaginary places and creatures and science-fiction stories

FEMININE ENDING: term that refers to an unstressed extra syllable at the end of a
line of iambic pentameter

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in

order to achieve a special effect or meaning. Speech or writing employing figures of
speech

FIGURE OF SPEECH: see figurative language

FICTION: it is prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events. Some
writers base their fiction on actual events and people, adding invented characters,
dialogue, settings and plots. Other writers rely on imagination alone

FLASHBACK: when a character remembers a past event that is relevant to the current
action of the story

FLAT CHARACTER: a literary character whose personality can be defined by one or

two traits and does not change over the course of the story. Flat characters are usually
minor or insignificant characters

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FOIL: a character that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive
characteristics of another

FOLKLORE: the traditional beliefs, myths, tales and practices of a people, transmitted
orally

FOLK TALE: it is a story composed orally and then passed from person to person by
word of mouth. They originated among people who could neither read nor write. They
often dealt with romance, heroes, adventure, magic, etc. they reflect the cultural beliefs
and environments from which they come

FOOT: the metrical length of a line is determined by the number of feet it contains:
Monometer: one foot, Dimeter: two feet, Trimeter: three feet, Tetrameter: four feet,
Pentameter: five feet, Hexameter: six feet, Heptameter: seven feet. The most common
feet have two or three syllables, with one stressed

FORESHADOWING: clues in the text about incidents that will occur later in the plot,
foreshadowing creates anticipation in the novel

FREE VERSE: type of verse that contains a variety of line lengths, is unrhymed, and
lacks traditional meter

GENRE: a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a

distinctive style, form or content

GOTHIC NOVEL: a genre of fiction characterized by mystery and supernatural

horror, often set in a dark castle or other medieval setting

HEROINE: a woman noted for courage and daring action or a female protagonist

HERO: it is a character whose actions are inspiring or noble. Heroes often struggle to
overcome the obstacles that stand in their way.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: the historical context of a literary work includes the

actual political and social events of the time. It must also be taken into account the
historical context in which the writer was creating the work, which may be different
from the time period of the work setting

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HUBRIS: used in Greek tragedies, refers to excessive pride that usually leads to a
heros downfall

HYPERBOLE: a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis on

comic/ dramatic effect

HYPOTACTIC: sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or

sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them (use of
such syntactic subordination of just one clause to another is known as hypotaxis)

HOMONYM: words with the same pronunciation and/ or spelling but with different
meanings

HUMOR: it is writing intended to evoke laughter. Humor can also be used to convey a
serious theme

HYPERBATON: (Greek for stepping-over) a figure of syntactic dislocation where

phrases or words that belong together are separated

HYPOTAXIS: clauses and sentences are arranged with subordination, usually longer
sentence constructions

IAMB: an iambic foot has two syllables. The first is unstressed and the second is
stressed. The iambic foot is most common in English poetry

ILLOCUTION: language that avoids meaning of the words. When we speak,

sometimes we conceal intentions or side step the true subject of a conversation. Writing
illocution expresses two stories, one of which is not apparent to the characters, but is
apparent to the reader. For example, if two characters are discussing a storm, on the
surface it may seem like a simple discussion of the weather, however, the reader should
interpret the underlying meaning that the relationship is in turmoil, chaos, is
unpredictable. As demonstrated the story contains an underlying meaning or parallel
meanings

IMAGERY: the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions or

ideas

IN MEDIAS RES: a story that begins in the middle of things

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IDIOM: it is an expression that has a meaning particular to a language or region

INVERSION: in poetry is an intentional digression from ordinary word order which is

used to maintain regular meters. For example, rather than saying the rain came a
poem may say came the rain. Meters can be formed by the insertion or absence of a
pause

IRONY: when one thing should occur, is apparent, or in logical sequence but the
opposite actually occurs. Example: a man in the ocean might say water, water
everywhere and not a drop to drink. Dramatic irony: when the audience or reader
knows something characters do not know. Verbal irony: when one thing is said, but
something else, usually the opposite, is meant. Cosmic irony: when a higher power toys
with human expectations

INNUENDO: when the writer hints at the meaning (but does not expressly state it), he/
she is using innuendo

IMAGE: a description of an experience, object, or person using sensory details, usually

more than one. Images are sometimes called concrete details. They are the building
blocks of poetry

JUXTAPOSITION: poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas,

words or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit. It
is also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or
metaphors

JOURNAL: it is a daily or periodic account of events and the writers thought and
feelings about those events.

LEGEND: it is a widely told story about the past one that may or may not have a
foundation in fact. Every culture has its own legends.

LIMERICK: it is a humorous, rhyming, five-line poem with a specific meter and

rhyme scheme. Most limericks have three strong stresses in lines 1, 2 and 5 and two
strong stresses in lines 3 and 4. Most follow the rhyme scheme aabba

LITOTES: the opposite of hyperbole, a deliberate understatement. Frequently they

are shown by the use of two negatives

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LYRIC POEM: it is a highly musical verse that expresses the observations and
feelings of a single speaker. It creates a single, unified impression

LOCAL COLOR: a tem applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special
emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape

LOOSE SENTENCE: one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further
dependent grammatical units

MASCULINE ENDING: stressed extra syllable at the end of a line

MEDIA ACCOUNTS: they are reports, explanations, opinions or descriptions written

for television, radio, newspapers and magazines. While some media accounts report
only facts, others include the writers thoughts and reflections

MEMOIR: an account of the personal experiences of an author

METER: the measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm,

syllabic quantity or the number of syllables in a line

METAPHOR: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates

one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, this
comparison does not use like or as. Types of metaphors are:

Implied metaphor: does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison
Extended metaphor: is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the
writer wants to take it (conceit if it is quite elaborate)
Dead metaphor: is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is
no longer vivid. Examples: The head of the house, The seat of the
government, A knotty problem are all dead metaphors
Mixed metaphor: is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms
so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. Example: The President
is a lame duck who is running out of gas

METONYMY: the use of a word or phrase to stand in for something else which is
often associated. i.e. Lamb means Jesus

MOTIF: a dominant theme or central idea

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MALAPROPISM: the misuse of words, often unintentionally

MOOD: it refers to the overall emotional effect or atmosphere of a literary work. It

refers to the kinds of emotions the work evokes in the reader

MOTIVE: it is a reason that explains a characters thoughts, feelings, actions or

speech. Writers try to make their characters motives as clear as possible. If the motives
of the main character are not clear, then the character will not be believable. Motives
may be obvious or hidden. Characters are often motivated by feelings, such as fear,
love, pride and sometimes motivated by needs, such as food or shelter

MYTH: it is a fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes or the origins of
elements of nature. Myths are part of the oral tradition. They are composed orally and
then passed from generation to generation. Every ancient culture has its own
mythology, or collection of myths. Greek and Roman myths are known collectively as
classical mythology

NARRATIVE: a narrative is a story. It can be either fiction or non-fiction

NARRATIVE POEM: it is a story told in verse. They often have all the elements of
short stories, including characters, conflict or plot

NON-FICTION: non-fiction is prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that
tells about real people, places, objects or events. Autobiographies, biographies, essays,
reports, letters, memos and newspaper articles are all types of non-fiction

NOVEL: it is a long work of fiction. Novels contain such elements as characters, plot,
conflict and setting. In addition to its main plot, a novel may contain one or more
subplots, or independent, related stories. It may also have several themes

NARRATOR: someone who tells a story. First person: the narrator is a character in the
story. Third person objective: the narrator does not tell what anyone is thinking. Third
person limited: the narrator is able to tell the thoughts of one character. Third person
omniscient: the narrator is able to tell the thoughts of any character

NOVELLA: a short novel usually under one hundred pages

NEUTRAL LANGUAGE: language opposite from emotive language as it is literal or

even objective in nature

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OBLIQUE RHYME: imperfect rhyme scheme

ODE: a lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having
an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure. An ode celebrates something. John
Keats is known for writing odes

ONOMATOPOEIA: the formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that

imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to

ORAL TRADITION: it is the passing of songs, stories and poems from generation to
generation. Folk songs, folk tales, legends and myths all come from the oral tradition.
No one knows who first created these stories and poems

OXYMORON :( Greek for sharp-dull) a self-contradictory combination of words or

smaller verbal units: usually noun-noun, adjective-adjective, adjective-noun, adverb-
adverb or adverb-verb. A paradoxical utterance that conjoins two terms that in ordinary
usage are contraries

PARADOX: statement which seems to contradict itself. i.e. His old face was youthful
when he heard the news

PARODY: a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or
a work for comic effect or ridicule

PERSONIFICATION: a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions

are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form
(prosopoeia)

PARATACTIC SENTENCE: simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. Example: I am

tired: it is hot

POETIC JUSTICE: the rewarding of virtue and the punishment of vice in the
resolution of a plot. The character, as they say, gets what he/ she deserves

PREQUEL: a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose narrative takes place before
that of a preexisting work or a sequel

PROLOGUE: an introduction or preface, especially a poem recited to introduce a play

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PROSE: ordinary speech or writing without metrical structure, written in paragraph
form. Novels and short stories are referred to as prose

PROTAGONIST: the main character in a drama or literary work

PUN: play on words, when two words have multiple meanings and spellings and are
used in a humorous manner (paronomasia)

PEJORATIVE: the use of words with disparaging connotations

PERSPECTIVE: see narrator and point of view

PERSUASION: it is used in writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader or

listener to adopt particular opinion or course of action. Newspapers editorials and letters
to the editor use persuasion, so do advertisements and campaign speeches by political
candidates

PLAYWRIGHT: it is a person who writes plays. William Shakespeare is regarded as

the greatest playwright in English literature

PROSE: it is the ordinary form of written language. Most writing that is not poetry,
drama or song is considered prose. Prose is one of the major genres of literature and
occurs in fiction and non-fiction

PERIPHRASIS: a descriptive word or phrase is used instead of a proper name

POLYSYNDETON: the unusual repetition of the same conjunction

PARATAXIS: clauses or sentences are arranged in a series without subordination,

usually shorter sentence construction

PARALLELISM: the repetition of identical or similar syntactic elements (words,

phrase, clause)

POLYPTOTON/ METABOLE: one word is repeated in different grammatical or

syntactical (inflected) form. A special case of polyptoton is the figura etylomologica
which repeats two or more words of the same stem

PORTMANTEAU/BLEND: words formed by blending two words into one. E.g.

brunch = breakfast + lunch

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PARABLE: a short allegory written to point out a moral lesson

PROLEPSIS: the use of an adjective to indicate that something has already happened
before it actually happens

PLOT: the patterns of events in a story. It is the relationship between the parts and how
they fit together. Traditionally plot has been divided into parts: exposition, rising action,
climax, falling action or denouement or resolution. These parts sometimes overlap

POETRY: literature that is written with a regular rhythm and is usually expressive,
imaginative and relevant to the life and experience of the reader or listener

POINT OF VIEW: the perspective from which a narrative is told: first person, third
person limited, third person omniscient and third person objective

QUATRAIN: a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be
considered as a unit

RHYME: the repetition of sounds in words

RHYTHM: a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and
unstressed syllables in language

RHYME SCHEME: the act of assigning letters in the alphabet to demonstrate the
rhyming lines in a poem

RISING ACTION: the events of a dramatic or narrative plot preceding the climax

RITES OF PASSAGE: an incident which creates tremendous growth signifying a

transition from adolescence to adulthood

REFRAIN: a refrain is a regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or a song

ROMANCE: in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a

quest and is successful

ROUND CHARACTER: a character who is developed over the course of the book,
round characters are usually major characters in a novel

RESOLUTION: solution to the conflict in literature

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REDDITIO: a syntactic unit or verse line is framed by the same element at the
beginning and at the end

RHETORIC: art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse

RHETORICAL QUESTION: a question which is really a statement and which does

not require an answer. It is a statement in the form of a question, and is used in speeches
made in public. Sometimes the question is answered by the person who asks it

REPETITION: it is the use, more than once, of any elements of language a sound,
word, phrase, clause or sentence. Repetition is used in both prose and poetry

RHYME SCHEME: it is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. To indicate the

rhyme scheme of a poem, one uses lowercase letters. Each rhyme is assigned a different
letter. For example, the stanza may have the rhyme scheme abab

SCENE: it is a section of uninterrupted action in the act of a drama

SATIRE: a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony,
derision or wit. The goal is to change the behavior/ issue. Authors known for satires are
Jonathan Swift and George Orwell

SIMILE: a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often
in a phrase introduced by like or as

SLANG: a kind of language occurring chiefly in casual or playful speech, made up

typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place
of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence or other effect

SOLILOQUY: a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to

himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. Typical in
plays

SONNET: a poem with fourteen lines. An Italian sonnet subdivides into two quatrains
and two tercets, while an English sonnet subdivides into three quatrains and one
couplet. A Volta is a sudden change of thought which is common in sonnets

STYLE: the combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression,

execution or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school or era

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STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: a style of writing that portrays the inner (often
chaotic) workings of a characters mind

STEREOTYPE: a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not

allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social or racial prejudices

SYNTACTIC FLUENCY: ability to create a variety of sentence structures,

appropriately complex and/ or simple and varied in length

SYNTACTIC PERMUTATION: sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex

and involved. Often difficult for a reader to follow

SYMBOLISM: something that represents something else by association, resemblance

or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible

SYNESTHESIA: the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another

(description of sound in terms of color: blue note, description of color in terms of
sound: loud shirt, etc.)

SYNECDOCHE: a figure of contiguity (form of metonymy), the use of a part for the
whole, or the whole for the part

SYMPLOCE: a combination of anaphora and epistrophe, so that one word or phrase is

repeated at the beginning and another word or phrase is repeated at the end of
successive phrases, clauses or sentences

SYNONYM: use of words with the same or similar meaning

SARCASM: a lower form of irony

SYLLEPSIS: the use of one word in two different senses

SETTING: the place in which a piece of literature is set, the time in which it occurs,
the special circumstances that make it unique or different from our own world, and the
culture in which it takes place

STANZA: a set of two or more lines in a poem, grouped by their arrangement on the
page or the subject that they express

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SYMBOL: something that is itself but also represents or stands for something else,
something tangible representing something abstract

SYNTAX: the way an author arranges words and phrases to create sentences. This is
roughly analogous to sentence fluency

SCIENCE FICTION: it combines elements of fiction and fantasy with scientific fact.
Many science-fiction stories are set in the future

SENSORY LANGUAGE: it is writing or speech that appeals to one or more of the

five senses

SHORT STORY: it is a brief work of fiction. The setting includes all the details of a
place and time the year, the time of day, even the weather. The place may be a
specific country, state, region, community, neighborhood, building, institution or home.
Details such as dialects, clothing, customs or modes of transportation are often used to
establish setting. In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop a context in which
the characters interact. Setting can also help to create a feeling or atmosphere

SOUND DEVICES: they are techniques used by writers to give musical effects to their
writing. Some of these include onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme, meter and repetition

SPEAKER: it is the imaginary voice a poet uses when writing a poem. The speaker is
the character who tells the poem. This character, or voice, often is not identified by
name. There can be important differences between the poet and the poems speaker

SPEECH: a speech is a non-fiction work that is delivered orally to an audience. Types

of speeches include dramatic, persuasive and informative

STAGE DIRECTIONS: they are notes included in a drama to describe how the work
is to be performed or staged. They are usually printed in italics and enclosed within
parenthesis or brackets. Some stage directions describe the movements, costumes,
emotional states and ways of speaking of the characters

STAGING: it includes the setting, lighting, costumes, special effects and music that go
into a stage performance of a drama

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SURPRISE ENDING: it is a conclusion that is unexpected. The reader has certain
expectations about the ending based on details in the story. Often, a surprise ending is
foreshadowed or subtle hinted at, in the course of the work

SUSPENSE: it is a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events in a

literary work. Writers create suspense by raising questions in the minds of their readers

TRAGEDY: a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or
suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flow, moral weakness or
inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances

TALL TALE: an outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously

unbelievable

TONE: reflects how the author feels about the subject matter or the feeling the author
wants to instill in the reader. It refers to the emotions the author expresses in the writing
of the work

TRICOLON: sentence of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three
independent clauses

TAUTOLOGY: one idea is repeatedly expressed through additional words, phrases or

sentences

TRANSFERRED EPITHET: the transfer of the adjective from the word which it
normally qualifies to another word to which it does not strictly belongs

THEME: the authors message on life that applies to everyone, is based on events in
the text, and is expressed as a statement. A theme is different from a moral because the
first is declarative and the second is imperative

UNDERSTATEMENT: an idea is deliberately expressed as less important than it

actually is; a special case of understatement is litotes, which denies the opposite of the
thing that is being affirmed (sometimes used synonymously with meiosis)

UNIVERSAL THEME: it is a message about life that is expressed regularly in many

different cultures and time periods. Folk tales, epics and romances often address
universal themes like the importance of courage, the power of love or the danger of
greed

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UNRELIABLE NARRATOR: a narrator in a first person narrative who cannot be
completely trusted to relay information accurately or to understand what is going on.
This can also apply in a third person narrative if the narrator is another character
addressing the reader directly

UNITY: unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing
principle. Unity is dependent upon coherence

VERNACULAR the language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality

ZEUGMA: one verb controls two or more objects that have different syntactic and
semantic relations to it

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