Figurative Language Flashcards
1
Q
pertains to any sentence with an active verb.
A
ACTIVE VOICE
2
Q
An extended narrative (in poetry or prose) in which the characters and actions - and sometimes the setting as well - are contrived to make sense on the literal level and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of characters, concepts, and events. In other words, an allegory carries a second, deeper meaning, as well as its surface story.
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ALLEGORY
3
Q
The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words in a sentence or a line of poetry.
A
ALLITERATION
4
Q
A reference to another person, another historical event, another work, and the like. To understand allusions requires familiarity at the very least with Greek and Roman mythology, Judeo-Christian literature, and Shakespeare. Identify the impact of an allusion the same way you would a metaphor: consider the purpose of the comparison.
A
ALLUSION
5
Q
Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible.
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AMBIGUITY
6
Q
A person, scene, event, or other element in literature that fails to correspond with the time or era in which the work is set.
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ANACHRONISM
7
Q
A term that signifies a comparison of or similarity between two objects or ideas.
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ANALOGY
8
Q
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive poetic lines, prose sentences, clauses or paragraphs. It is used to emphasize an idea.
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ANAPHORA
9
Q
Inverted syntax.
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ANASTROPHE
10
Q
A character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist, produces tension.
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ANTAGONIST
11
Q
A rhetorical opposition or contrast of ideas by means of a grammatical arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences.
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ANTITHESIS
12
Q
A brief statement of an opinion or elemental truth.
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APHORISM
13
Q
A direct address to someone who is not present, to a deity or muse, or to some other power.
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APOSTROPHE
14
Q
An abstract or ideal conception of a type; a perfectly typical example; an original model or form.
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ARCHETYPE
15
Q
The repetition of a vowel sound within a group of words or lines.
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ASSONANCE
16
Q
The omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.
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ASYNDETON
17
Q
A short poem in song format (sometimes with refrains) that tells a story.
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BALLAD
18
Q
A poet; in olden times, a performer who told heroic stories to musical accompaniment.
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BARD
19
Q
Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
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BLANK VERSE
20
Q
Harsh, discordant, or unpleasing sounds.
A
CACOPHONY
21
Q
A pause in a line of poetry in order to make the meaning clear or to follow the natural rhythm of speech.
A
CAESURA
22
Q
The works considered most important in a national literature or period; works widely read and studied.
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CANON
23
Q
Latin for “Seize the day.”
A
Carpe Diem
24
Q
A purging of emotion, experienced by audiences especially through the pity they feel when witnessing the tragic hero’s fall from grace.
A
CATHARSIS
25
A group of characters in a play who comment on, but do not participate in, the action.
CHORUS
26
The high point, or turning point, of a story or play.
CLIMAX
27
An extended metaphor comparing two unlike subjects with dramatic effect.
CONCEIT
28
The associations or moods attached to a word. Words generally are positive, negative, or neutral. The connotation of words usually contributes to an author’s tone.
CONNOTATION
29
The repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel.
CONSONANCE
30
A pair of rhymed lines.
COUPLET
31
The dictionary definition of a word.
DENOTATION
32
The resolution that occurs at the end of a play or work of fiction.
DENOUEMENT
33
A regional speech pattern, often used to make a passage feel personal and authentic.
DIALECT
34
The specific words an author uses in her writing; word choice. An author’s choice of words serves to create meaning, portray characters, convey tone, develop themes, and much more.
DICTION
35
A formal meditative poem or lament for the dead.
ELEGY
36
Three periods that indicate words have been left out of a quotation. Ellipses are also used to create suspense.
ELLIPSES
37
A feeling of association or identification with an object or person.
EMPATHY
38
A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark are end-stopped lines.
END-STOPPED:
39
In poetry, the use of successive lines with no punctuation or pause between them.
ENJAMBMENT
40
An extended narrative poem that tells of the adventures of a hero who is generally on a quest.
EPIC POEM
41
A short quotation or verse that precedes a poem (or any text) that sets a tone, provides a setting, or gives some other context for the poem.
EPIGRAPH
42
A moment of insight, spiritual or personal; a character’s sudden revelation about life or his own circumstances.
EPIPHANY
43
The ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words, used to emphasize the word or group of words for emotional impact.
EPISTROPHE
44
An adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality of a person or thing.
EPITHET
45
A term for the title character of a work of literature.
EPONYMOUS
46
To use an inoffensive or more socially acceptable word for something that could be inappropriate or offensive to some.
EUPHEMISM
47
Pleasing, melodious, pleasant sounds.
EUPHONY
48
The background and events that lead to the presentation of the main idea or purpose of a work of literature.
EXPOSITION
49
A return to an earlier time in a story or play in order to clarify present action or circumstances.
FLASHBACK
50
A minor character whose situation or action parallel those of a major character and thus by contrast set off or illuminate the major character.
FOIL
51
The combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up the metric unit of a line. The most commonly used feet are the iambic foot and the trochaic foot. (monometer/one foot, dimeter/two feet, trimeter/three feet, tetrameter/four feet, pentameter/five feet, hexameter/six feet (also called an Alexandrine), heptameter/seven feet (also called a fourteener), octometer/eight feet)
FOOT
52
Providing hints of things to come in a story or play.
FORESHADOWING
53
Poetry that doesn’t follow a prescribed form but is characterized by irregularity in the length of the lines and a lack of regular metrical pattern and rhyme.
FREE VERSE
54
Characterized by distortions or incongruities.
GROTESQUE
55
A tragic flaw or an unwitting error in judgment.
HAMARTIA
56
Excessive pride.
HUBRIS
57
Overstatement or gross exaggeration of an event or feeling.
HYPERBOLE
58
Language that appeals to one or another of the five senses and relies on vivid adjectives, similes, or metaphors.
IMAGERY
59
A Latin term for a narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point.
in media res
60
The use of words to express something other than - and often the opposite of - the literal meaning. There are three types of irony. Verbal irony contrasts what is said and what is meant. Situational irony contrasts what happens and what was expected to happen. Dramatic irony contrasts what the character thinks to be true and what the reader knows to be true.
IRONY
61
A pattern of speech and vocabulary associated with a particular group of people (i.e. medical doctors, computer analysts, teachers).
JARGON
62
The placement of one idea next to its opposite to make it more dramatic.
JUXTAPOSITION
63
A form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity.
LITOTES
64
Any poem in which a speaker expresses intensely personal emotion or thoughts. The term was originally applied to poems meant to be sung; now the term is sometimes used to refer to any poem that has a musical quality or is characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination.
LYRIC
65
A figure of speech in with an implicit comparison is made between two things that are essentially dissimilar. Metaphors, unlike similes, do not use “like” or “as.”
METAPHOR
66
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables or the units of stress patterns. (iambic: a light followed by a stressed syllable (balloon); trochaic: a stressed followed by a light syllable (soda); anapestic: two light followed by a stressed syllable (contradict); dactylic: a stressed followed by two light syllables (maniac); spondaic: two successive syllables with approximately equal strong stresses (man-made); pyrrhic: two successive syllables with approximately equal light stresses)
METER
67
A figure of speech in which the name of one thing is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.
METONYMY
68
The dominant tone in a piece or passage, typically the emotional quality of the scene or setting.
MOOD
69
A recurring element, an image or idea, in a work of literature, whose repetition emphasizes some aspect of the work (theme, plot, etc.).
MOTIF
70
A lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate in its stanzaic structure.
ODE
71
A figure of speech in which a word when spoken imitates the sound associated with the word.
ONOMATOPOEIA
72
A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms.
OXYMORON
73
A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. are allegorical stories.
PARABLE
74
A figure of speech that seeks to create mental ambiguity, which then forces the reader to pause and seek clarity. A seemingly contradictory statement which is actually true.
PARADOX
75
A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect.
PARODY
76
The passive voice is used when something happens to someone.
PASSIVE VOICE
77
A reference to or a description of simple country life. Older pastoral poems usually include shepherds who live in an idyllic setting. Generally, the word “” suggests being carefree or returning to a time of innocence.
PASTORAL
78
Giving human characteristics to nonhuman things.
PERSONIFICATION
79
The plot line is the pattern of events, including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
PLOT
80
The perspective from which the writer chooses to tell his or her story. Point of view can be in the first, second, or third person, and limited, omniscient, or objective.
POINT OF VIEW
81
The main character in a work of literature.
PROTAGONIST
82
A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings.
PUN
83
A line, part of a line, or group of lines repeated in the course of a poem, sometimes with slight changes.
REFRAIN
84
A quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust. There are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is, tellers of a story who should or should not be trusted.
RELIABILITY
85
The repeating of a word or phrase for emphasis.
REPETITION
86
A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply. No reply is expected because the question presupposes only one possible answer.
RHETORICAL QUESTION
87
The echo or imitation of a sound.
RHYME
88
The sense of movement attributable to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Although rhythm is sometimes used to signify meter, it includes tempo (pacing) and natural fluctuations of movement.
RHYTHM
89
A form of writing in which a subject (usually a human vice) is made fun of or scorned, eliciting amusement, contempt, or indignation. to provoke change or reform.
SATIRE
90
The total environment for the action in a novel or play. It includes time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spiritual circumstances.
SETTING
91
A change in setting (place or time), tone, or speakers. is especially important for determining the overall purpose and tone of a poem.
SHIFT
92
A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made using “like,” “as,” or “than” between two very different things in order to express an idea that is more familiar or understandable.
SIMILE
93
A speech in which a character in a play, alone on stage, expresses his or her thoughts. may reveal the private emotions, motives, and state of mind of the speaker. |also known as dramatic monologue.
SOLILOQUY
94
A fixed form of fourteen lines, normally in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme conforming to or approximating one of two main types.
SONNET
95
The narrative voice of a poem.
SPEAKER
96
A group of lines that forms one division of a poem.
STANZA
97
The voice of the writer as reflected by types and lengths of sentences, word choice, use of figurative language and imagery.
STYLE
98
A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. begins with a major premise followed by a minor premise and a conclusion.
SYLLOGISM
99
An object that signifies something greater than itself.
SYMBOL
100
The addition of multiple conjunctions between the parts of a sentence.
SYNDETON
101
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole.
SYNECDOCHE
102
In general, the order of words in a sentence that results in various sentence types used for a variety of rhetorical effects
SYNTAX
103
An insight into life conveyed by a poem or story.
is the main point the author wants to make with the reader, and is often a basic truth, an acknowledgement of our humanity, or a reminder of human beings’ shortcomings. This general insight is usually about life, society, or human nature.
often explore timeless and universal ideas.
Most are implied rather than stated explicitly.
Short works of fiction may have only one or two ; however, a novel may include many because of the number and depth of the characters and the numerous events within the plot.
THEME
104
The speaker or narrator’s (or author’s) attitude toward another character, a place, an idea or a thing, or the emotional quality of a passage.
TONE
105
Typically a drama in which a tragic hero experiences a fall from noble stature. The audience feels pity for the hero, but also fear that they, but for chance, could have been or might be in the hero’s place.
TRAGEDY
106
A person of greater than normal stature (more noble, more attractive, smarter, etc.) who falls from grace (station of power, respect, or goodness) due to a tragic flaw (hamartia), or, more typically, pride (hubris).
TRAGIC HERO
107
Saying less than the situation warrants. The contrast illuminates the truth.
UNDERSTATEMENT
108
Lines of poetry or metrical language in general, in contrast to prose.
VERSE
109
Any shift or turning point in a work of prose or poetry. may mark a shift in point of view, tone, mood, style, or any other manner of expression.
VOLTA
110
A figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses or to two others of which it semantically suits only one.
ZEUGMA
