Literary Devices

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a symbolic representation

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

the repetition of initial consonants (there should be at least 2 repetitions in a row

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

a reference to a famous person or event in life or literature

Question 4

analogy

Answer 4

a comparison of two things/ideas that have the same relationship

Question 5

anecdote

Answer 5

a brief story

Question 6

antagonist

Answer 6

the character who opposes the protagonist; works as a contrast to the protagonist

Question 7

climax

Answer 7

the turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story (the climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work)

Question 8

dialogue

Answer 8

the actual works that characters speak

Question 9

diction

Answer 9

words authors use (word choice)

Question 10

flashback

Answer 10

when events that took place before the current action of a story are explained in order to give background information; often reflected by character’s thinking back to previous events

Question 11

foreshadowing

Answer 11

hints of what is to come in the action of a play/story

Question 12

hyperbole

Answer 12

a figure of speech involving exaggeration

Question 13

imagery

Answer 13

conveys words or pictures; descriptive language

Question 14

irony

Answer 14

creates a contrast between what is said and what is meant; between expectations and reality

Question 15

juxtaposition

Answer 15

putting opposites beside each other in order to show the difference

Question 16

metaphor

Answer 16

a comparison in which one thing is said to be another

Question 17

onomatopoeia

Answer 17

the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe

Question 18

oxymoron

Answer 18

putting two contradictory words together

Question 19

pathetic fallacy

Answer 19

when nature mimics what is happening in the story

Question 20

personification

Answer 20

giving human qualities to animals or objects

Question 21

protagonist

Answer 21

the main character

Question 22

pun

Answer 22

a word which has two meanings at the same time (this results in humor - a play on words)

Question 23

satire

Answer 23

blends a critical attitude with humor; the purpose is to ridicule in order to inspire reform

Question 24

simile

Answer 24

a figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like or as

Question 25

symbol

Answer 25

an object, image, character, or action that stands for an idea beyond its literal meaning

Question 26

tone

Answer 26

the attitude the author has toward the subject; most often created through the author’s choice of words (diction)

Question 27

understatement

Answer 27

a form of irony in which is intentionally represented as less important

Question 28

double entendre

Answer 28

means 2 understandings

Question 29

assonance

Answer 29

in poetry, the repetition of the sound or a vowel or diphthong in non rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

Question 30

antithesis

Answer 30

opposites

Question 31

enjambment

Answer 31

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet or stanza

Question 32

metonymy

Answer 32

the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant

Question 33

synecdoche

Answer 33

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

Question 34

internal rhyme

Answer 34

when two or more words rhyme within the line, instead of at the end of the line