Literary Terms

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of initial sounds in neighbouring words.

•Ex. jump for joy

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

A brief reference to a person, event or place.

Question 3

Analogy

Answer 3

Comparison between two things that have the same relationship.
•Ex. Hot is to cold as fire is to ice.

Question 4

Antagonist

Answer 4

Force that opposes the main character in a story.

Question 5

Anecdote

Answer 5

A short amusing story.

Question 6

Apostrophe

Answer 6

Talking to something absent as if it were present.

•Ex. “O Wild West wind, thou breath d autumn’s being.”

Question 7

Assonance

Answer 7

Repetition of vowel sounds.

•Ex. Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks.

Question 8

Cacophony

Answer 8

Harsh, discordant sounds.

•Ex. Finger of birth strangled babe

Question 9

Cliche

Answer 9

An overused expression

•Ex. Hold your horses

Question 10

Colloquial

Answer 10

Very informal speech also known as street talk

Question 11

Connotation

Answer 11

Emotions associated with words.

•Ex. Both chick and woman refer to adult woman but Chick has a more disrespectful connotation.

Question 12

Consonance

Answer 12

Repetition of consonant sounds.

•Ex. Dark deep dread crept in.

Question 13

Context

Answer 13

Word or phrase in a whole passage gives it meaning

Question 14

Dramatic Irony

Answer 14

Occurs when an character knows less about his/her situation than the audience does.
•Ex. Audience knows Juliet isn’t dead but Romeo doesn’t.

Question 15

Euphony

Answer 15

Soothing pleasant sounds.

•Ex. O star the fairest one in sight.

Question 16

Allegory

Answer 16

A story with two meanings.

• Ex. Animal Farm is about the Russian revolution.

Question 17

Foil

Answer 17

A character that contrasts a second character that highlights a certain quality of the first character.
•Ex. Album Dumbledore is a foil to Voldemort.

Question 18

Foreshadowing

Answer 18

Using hints or clues to suggest what is going to happen later on in the story.

Question 19

Hyperbole

Answer 19

Exaggeration

•Ex. He’s as big as a house.

Question 20

Imagery

Answer 20

Use of language that evokes one or l five senses.

Question 21

Verbal Irony

Answer 21

When an author says one thing but means something else

Question 22

Irony of Situation

Answer 22

Conflict between the expected result and the actual result.

Question 23

Juxtaposition

Answer 23

Placing different words side by side to create an effect

•Ex. Macbeth vs. lady Macbeth

Question 24

Metaphor

Answer 24

Comparison of two unlike things without using like or as.

•Ex. He is a pig.

Question 25

Motif

Answer 25

A dominant theme in literature

Question 26

Onomatopoeia

Answer 26

Words that imitate the sound it represents.

•Ex. Splash, wow, plop

Question 27

Oxymoron

Answer 27

Putting two contradictory words together.

•Ex. Hot ice, cold fire

Question 28

Paradox

Answer 28

Two opposing ideas that reveals truth that at first is contradictory.
•Ex. Stone walls do not make a prison, nor iron bars a cage.

Question 29

Personification

Answer 29

Giving human qualities to animals or objects.

•Ex. A smiling moon

Question 30

Objective Point of View

Answer 30

Writer tells us what is happening by using the story’s action anddialog. Reader has access to nobody’s head.
•Ex. A detached observer.

Question 31

Third Person Point of View

Answer 31

Reader has access to one person’s head at a time. We learn about the character’s through the outside voice.
•Ex. She watched Johnny Hockey from the stands above.

Question 32

First Person Point of View

Answer 32

Narrator participates in the action of the story.

• Ex. I watched him skate out on the ice with grace.

Question 33

Omniscient Point of View

Answer 33

knows everything about all the character

Is all knowing

Question 34

Limited Omniscient Point of View

Answer 34

narrator islimitedto one character

Can be major or minor

Question 35

Protagonist

Answer 35

The main character in a story.

•Ex. Bella in Twilight.

Question 36

Rhetorical Question

Answer 36

An obvious question that has no answer.

•Ex. If winter comes can spring be far behind?

Question 37

Satire

Answer 37

Using humor,exaggeration, or irony to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an person or society.
•Ex. Political cartoons

Question 38

Setting

Answer 38

Time and place in fictional literature.

Question 39

Simile

Answer 39

Comparison of two unlike things using like or as.

•Ex. Vines like golden prisons.

Question 40

Soliloquy

Answer 40

A speech made to the audience when an actor is alone on stage.

Question 41

Stanza

Answer 41

Unified group of lines in poetry.

Question 42

Symbol

Answer 42

Using an object or action that means more than its literal meaning.
•Ex. The bird of night (owl is a symbol of death)

Question 43

Synecdoche

Answer 43

When one used a part to represent the whole

•Ex. Lend me ears (give me your attention)

Question 44

Theme

Answer 44

General idea of insight about life that a writer wishes to express.

Question 45

Thesis

Answer 45

A position taken and supported by a wether. Every essay has a thesis statement.

Question 46

Tone

Answer 46

Attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character.

•Ex. Serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue in cheek, solemn, and objective.

Question 47

Understatement

Answer 47

A statement that underestimates the obvious.

•Ex. On a day of extreme weather, like it is really really hot, one might say, “Is it warm enough for you?”

Question 48

Verse

Answer 48

A line of poetry.