Diction Flashcards
Term: Denotation
Meaning: The objective meaning of what a word means or the literal meaning of what that word means.
Example #1: The dog was literally barking up the wrong tree to get the cat. (The cat was in a different tree.)
Example #2: That girl was cold to me. ( She was actually cold and felt cold to the touch.)
Term: Connotation
Meaning: A word to suggest a different association than what the word actually means.
Example #1: The girl was blue as she realized she failed the test.
Example #2: The boy was hot as he didn’t get the toy he wanted.
Term: Colloquial
Meaning: that utilizes informal words or phrases
Example #1: Wanna (want to)
Example #2: Score (getting something you want)
Term: Formal
Meaning: writing that establishes a professional tone, such as business writing or formal essays
Example #1: The man spoke to his father in a low voice so others could not hear.
Example #2: Hello, young man. It is a true pleasure to make your acquaintance. How are you feeling today?
Term: Informal
Meaning: A broad term for speech or writing marked by a casual, familiar, and generally colloquial use of language.
Example #1: Hey, kid. Nice to meet ya. What’s up?
Example #2: That guy told his dad secrets.
Term: Metonymy
Meaning: Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes.
Example #1: We await word from the crowd.
Example #2: I’m told he’s gone so far as to give her a diamond ring
Term: Monosyllabic
Meaning: An utterance or a word having only one syllable.
Example #1: Buy
Example #2: Heat
Term: Polysillabic
Meaning: Using or characterized by words of many syllables.
Example #1: Children
Example #2: Tonight
Term: Contrastive
Meaning: Used by a writer to emphasize the differences between two people, places or things
Example #1: Coral is far more red than her lips
Example #2: Is the opposite of white, and so there’s a contrast between black ink and white paper.
Term: Concrete
Meaning: Language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities.
Example #1: The crunching sound of the leaves in the dark forest makes me think there is something around me.
Example #2: the burnt toast in the toaster tells me that the toast was ready a long time ago.
Term: Abstract
Meaning: language that describes concepts rather than concrete images
Example #1: Early bird gets the worm.
Example #2: What goes around, comes around.
Term: Ambiguous
Meaning: When the structure and/or content of a statement makes its meaning unclear, leaving it open to multiple possible interpretations.
Example #1: The chicken is ready to eat. There are two meanings, the first one is that the chicken is already cooked and people are going to eat that chicken, the other meaning is a chicken is going to eat.
Example #2: “I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed meeting your husband.”
