Literary terms

Question 1

Anaphora

Answer 1

Repetition of a word, phrase or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. (Oh lord, oh lord)

Question 2

Apostrophe

Answer 2

Addressing someone or something, usually not present, as if they are present. Ex: Death, be not Proud

Question 3

Asyndeton

Answer 3

A figure of speech in which one or several conjunctions are omitted from a series of related clauses ex: I came, I saw, I conquered.

Question 4

Caesura

Answer 4

A pause for effect (period, dash, semicolon)

Question 5

Connotation

Answer 5

The idea or meaning that a word invokes in addition to its primary meaning

Question 6

Diction

Answer 6

The choice of words in a phrase of speech or writing

Question 7

Denotation

Answer 7

Literal meanings of a word (dictionary definition)

Question 8

Hyperbole

Answer 8

An unreal exaggeration to emphasize a real situation (she weighed a ton!)

Question 9

Rhythm

Answer 9

A rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables

Question 10

Synecdoche

Answer 10

A figure of speech in which part represents a whole. (The word “wheels” usually refers to the whole vehicle)

Question 11

Kenning

Answer 11

Elaborate metaphors that indirectly name persons, things or events ( ankle-biter: very young child)

Question 12

Alliteration

Answer 12

He repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

Question 13

Allusion

Answer 13

A direct or indirect reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, science, etc.

Question 14

Imagery

Answer 14

The use of language to evoke a picture or concrete sensation of a person

Question 15

Irony

Answer 15

A discrepancy between appearances and reality (“I didn’t see it coming, and then it hit me”)

Question 16

Personification

Answer 16

Personal nature or human characteristics attributed to something nonhuman

Question 17

Metaphor

Answer 17

Comparison between two unlike things without using like or as

Question 18

Mood

Answer 18

Atmosphere created by a writers diction

Question 19

Pun

Answer 19

A play on words (she had a photographic memory but never developed it)

Question 20

Onomatopoeia

Answer 20

Sound words

Question 21

Simile

Answer 21

A figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using words such as “like” or “as”

Question 22

Antithesis

Answer 22

Figure of speech in which a thought is balanced with a contrasting thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases, such as, “ he promised wealth and provided poverty.”

Question 23

Conceit

Answer 23

A metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different

Question 24

Metonymy

Answer 24

A figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it..

Question 25

Paraphrase

Answer 25

Summing up in ones own words

Question 26

Personification

Answer 26

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings/characteristics

Question 27

Symbol

Answer 27

A person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself

Question 28

Understatement

Answer 28

A statement that says less than what is meant