LITERARY DEVICES

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

Allegories are narratives that represent something else entirely, like a historical event or significant ideology, to illustrate a deeper meaning. Sometimes the stories are entirely fabricated and only loosely tied to their source, but sometimes the individual characters act as fictional stand-ins for real-life historical figures.

Question 2

Alliteration

Answer 2

Alliteration is the literary technique of using a sequence of words that begin with the same letter or sound for a poetic or whimsical effect.

Question 3

Allusion

Answer 3

An allusion is an indirect reference to another figure, event, place, or work of art that exists outside the story. Allusions are made to famous subjects so that they don’t need explanation—the reader should already understand the reference.

Question 4

Amplification

Answer 4

Amplification is the technique of embellishing a simple sentence with more details to increase its significance.

Question 5

Anagram

Answer 5

An anagram is a word puzzle where the author rearranges the letters in a word or phrase to make a new word or phrase.

Question 6

Analogy

Answer 6

An analogy compares one thing to something else to help explain a similarity that might not be easy to see.

Question 7

Anthropomorphism

Answer 7

Anthropomorphism is when non-human things like animals or objects act human, exhibiting traits such as speech, thoughts, complex emotions, and sometimes even wearing clothes and standing upright.

Question 8

Antithesis

Answer 8

Antithesis places two contrasting and polarized sentiments next to each other in order to accent both.

Question 9

Chiasmus

Answer 9

The literary technique of chiasmus takes two parallel clauses and inverts the word order of one to create a greater meaning.

Question 10

Colloquialism

Answer 10

Colloquialism is using casual and informal speech, including slang, in formal writing to make dialogue seem more realistic and authentic. It often incorporates respelling words and adding apostrophes to communicate the pronunciation.

Question 11

Circumlocution

Answer 11

Circumlocution is when the writer deliberately uses excessive words and overcomplicated sentence structures to intentionally convolute their meaning. In other words, it means to write lengthily and confusingly on purpose.

Question 12

Epigraph

Answer 12

An epigraph is an independent, pre-existing quotation that introduces a piece of work, typically with some thematic or symbolic relevance.

Question 13

Euphemism

Answer 13

A euphemism is a soft and inoffensive word or phrase that replaces a harsh, unpleasant, or hurtful one for the sake of sympathy or civility.

Question 14

Foreshadowing

Answer 14

Foreshadowing is the technique of hinting at future events in a story using subtle parallels, usually to generate more suspense or engage the reader’s curiosity.

Question 15

Hyperbole

Answer 15

Hyperbole is using exaggeration to add more power to what you’re saying, often to an unrealistic or unlikely degree.

Question 16

Imagery

Answer 16

Imagery refers to writing that invokes the reader’s senses with descriptive word choice to create a more vivid and realistic recreation of the scene in their mind.

Question 17

Metaphor

Answer 17

Similar to an analogy, a metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things to show their similarities by insisting that they’re the same.

Question 17

Mood

Answer 17

A story’s mood is the emotional response the author is targeting. A writer sets the mood not just with the plot and characters, but also with tone and the aspects they choose to describe.

Question 18

Motif

Answer 18

A motif is a recurring element in a story that holds some symbolic or conceptual meaning. It’s closely related to theme, but motifs are specific objects or events, while themes are abstract ideas.

Question 19

Onomatopoeia

Answer 19

Fancy literary term onomatopoeia refers to words that represent sounds, with pronunciations similar to those sounds.

Question 20

Oxymoron

Answer 20

An oxymoron combines two contradictory words to give them a deeper and more poetic meaning.

Question 21

Paradox

Answer 21

Similar to an oxymoron, a paradox combines two contradictory ideas in a way that, although illogical, still seems to make sense.

Question 22

Personification

Answer 22

Personification is when an author attributes human characteristics metaphorically to nonhuman things like the weather or inanimate objects. Personification is strictly figurative, whereas anthropomorphism posits that those things really do act like humans.

Question 23

Portmaneau

Answer 23

Portmanteau is the literary device of joining two words together to form a new word with a hybrid meaning.

Question 24

Puns

Answer 24

Puns are a type of comedic wordplay that involve homophones (different words that are pronounced the same) or two separate meanings of the same word.

Question 25

Satire

Answer 25

Satire is a style of writing that uses parody and exaggeration to criticize the faults of society or human nature.

Question 25

Simile

Answer 25

Like metaphors, similes also compare two different things to point out their similarities. However, the difference between similes and metaphors is that similes use the words “like” or “as” to soften the connection and explicitly show it’s just a comparison.

Question 26

Symbolism

Answer 26

Closely related to motifs, symbolism is when objects, characters, actions, or other recurring elements in a story take on another, more profound meaning and/or represent an abstract concept.

Question 27

Tone

Answer 27

Tone refers to the language and word choice an author uses with their subject matter, like a playful tone when describing children playing, or a hostile tone when describing the emergence of a villain. If you’re confused about tone vs. mood, tone refers mostly to individual aspects and details, while mood refers to the emotional attitude of the entire piece of work.