Figurative Language And Literary Terms

Question 0

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words such as “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Answer 0

Alliteration

Question 1

What is a story in which people (or things or actions) represent an idea or a generalization about life? It usually has a strong lesson or moral.

Answer 1

Allegory

Question 2

A reference to a familiar person, place, thing or event - for example, Don Juan, brave new world, utopia

Answer 2

Allusion

Question 3

A comparison of objects or ideas that appear to be different but are alike in some important way.

Answer 3

Analogy

Question 4

Meter that is composed of feet that are short-short-long or unaccented-unaccented-accented, usually used in light or whimsical poetry, such as a limerick.

Answer 4

Anapestic Meter

Question 5

A brief story that illustrates or makes a point

Answer 5

Anecdote

Question 6

A person or thing working against the hero of a literary work (the protagonist)

Answer 6

Antagonist

Question 7

A wise saying, usually short and written

Answer 7

Aohorism

Question 8

A turn from the general audience to address a specific group of persons (or personified abstraction) who is present or absent. Example: in a recent performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet turned to the audience and spoke directly to one woman about his father’s death.

Answer 8

Apostrophe

Question 9

A repetition of the same sound in words close to one another - for example, white stripes.

Answer 9

Assonance

Question 10

Unrhymed verse, often occurring in iambic pentameter.

Answer 10

Blank Verse

Question 11

A break in the rhythm of language, particularly in natural pause in a line of verse marked in prosody by a double vertical line. (This looks similar to quotation marks, however, they are angled more downward and to the right.

Answer 11

Caesura

Question 12

A method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits.

Answer 12

Characterization

Question 13

An expression that has been used so often that it loses its expressive power. Example: “dead as a doornail” or “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse.”

Answer 13

Cliche

Question 14

Repetition of the final consonant sound in words containing differet vowels. “stroke of luck”

Answer 14

Consonance

Question 15

An author’s choice of words based on their clearness, conciseness, effectiveness, and authenticity.

Answer 15

Diction

Question 16

Old-fashioned words that are no longer used in common speech, such as thee, thy, and thou.

Answer 16

Archaic Diction

Question 17

Expressions that are usually accepted in informal situations or regions such as, “wicked awesome.”

Answer 17

Colloquialism

Question 18

A variety of language used by people from a particular geographic region.

Answer 18

Dialect

Question 19

Specialized language used in a particular field or content area - for example, “differentiated instruction, cooperative learning, authentic assessment.

Answer 19

Jargon

Question 20

Language that shows disrespect for others or something sacred.

Answer 20

Profanity

Question 21

Informal language used by a particular group of people among themselves

Answer 21

Slang

Question 22

Language widely considered crude, disgusting and oftentimes, offensive

Answer 22

Vulgarity

Question 23

Rhyming of the ends of lines of verse

Answer 23

End Rhyme

Question 24

Also known as a run on line in poetry. It occurs when one line ends and continues onto the next line to complete meaning. Ex: In Thoreau’s poem “My life has been the poem I would have writ,” the first line is, “My life has been the poem I would have writ,” and the second line completes the meaning - “but I could not both live and utter it.”

Answer 24

Enjambment

Question 25

A philosophy that values human freedom and personal responsibility. Jean-Paul Satre is the foremost example. Others include Soren Kierkebgaard (father of this philosophy), Albert Camus, Freidrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, and Simone de Beauvoir.

Answer 25

Existentialism

Question 26

As literary device in which the author jumps back in time in the chronology of the narrative.

Answer 26

Flashback

Question 27

One stressed syllable and a number of unstressed syllables (from zero to as many as four). Stressed syllables are indicated by the ‘ symbol. Unstressed syllables are indicated by the ~ symbol (it is not actually the Tilda. It looks more like a parenthesis lying on its side

Answer 27

Foot

Question 28

unstressed, stressed

Answer 28

Iambic Meter Feet

Question 29

stressed, unstressed

Answer 29

Trochaic Meter Feet

Question 30

unstressed, stressed, stressed

Answer 30

Anapestic Meter Feet

Question 31

stressed, unstressed, unstressed

Answer 31

Dactylic Meter Feet

Question 32

Monometer

Answer 32

One Foot

Question 33

Dimeter

Answer 33

Two feet

Question 34

Trimeter

Answer 34

Three feet

Question 35

Tetrameter

Answer 35

Four feet

Question 36

Pentameter

Answer 36

Five feet

Question 37

Hexameter

Answer 37

Six feet

Question 38

Septameter

Answer 38

Seven feet

Question 39

Octameter

Answer 39

Eight feet

Question 40

A literary technique in which the author gives hints or clues about what is to come at some point later in the story.

Answer 40

Foreshadowing