Literary Terms

Question 1

Asyndeton

Answer 1

A figure of speech in which one or several conjunctions are omitted from a series of related causes.

“veni, vidi, vici”

Question 2

Blank Verse

Answer 2

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 3

Cacophony

Answer 3

A harsh unpleasant combination of sounds or tones.

Question 4

Caesura

Answer 4

A pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by the sense of the line, and greater than the normal pause.

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Question 5

Allegory

Answer 5

A narrative that serves as an extended metaphor

Question 6

Alliteration

Answer 6

A pattern of repetitive consonant sounds.

Question 7

Allusion

Answer 7

A reference to a literary work, person, place or thing in history

Question 8

Anastrophe

Answer 8

Figure of speech in which the syntactically correct order of subject, verb, and object is changed.

(ex. “Potatoes I like” vs “I like potatoes”)

Question 9

Anaphora

Answer 9

A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring
clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.

(ex. “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”)

Question 10

Anecdote

Answer 10

A short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident.

Question 11

Antithesis

Answer 11

A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas.

(ex. Man proposes. God disposes.”)

Question 12

Aphorism

Answer 12

Common brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted
general truth.

Question 13

Apostrophe

Answer 13

A figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract quality, or a
nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present.

(ex. “Papa Above! Regard a Mouse.”)

Question 14

Assonance

Answer 14

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

(ex. “A land laid waste with all its young men slain”

Question 15

Conceit

Answer 15

An ingenious or fanciful conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between 2 seemingly dissimilar things. “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.”

Question 16

Consonance

Answer 16

The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words. The term usually refers to words in which the ending consonants are the same but the vowels that precede them are different.

Ex. (“Add & Read” / “Born & Burn)

Question 17

Couplet

Answer 17

A two-line stanza, usually with end-rhymes the same.

Question 18

Denotation

Answer 18

The exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions that word may imply.

Question 19

Denouement

Answer 19

Literally meaning the action of untying… after a story’s climax

Question 20

Diction

Answer 20

The use of words in a literary work.

Question 21

Didactic

Answer 21

Literature which is intended primarily to teach a lesson..

Question 22

Elegy

Answer 22

A poem about someone’s death or another solemn theme.

Question 23

End-Stop

Answer 23

A line with a comma, a colon, a semicolon, and exclamation period, or a question mark are end stop lines.

Question 24

Enjambment

Answer 24

When a sentence does not end with the line of poetry, rather it carries over the next line.

(Ex. …Or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flow’d)

Question 25

Euphony

Answer 25

Combination of pleasant sounds. Opposite of Cacophony.

Question 26

Eye Rhyme

Answer 26

(Ex. “Watch” and “Match”)

Ex. “love” and “move”

Question 27

Feminine Rhyme

Answer 27

Aka double rhyme. A rhyme of 2 syllables, 1 stressed & 1 unstressed.

ex. (waken & forsaken)
ex. (audition and rendition)

Question 28

“Gnus never knew pneumonia”

Answer 28

Alliteration

Question 29

“One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Answer 29

Antithesis

Question 30

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Answer 30

Aphorism

Question 31

“Papa above! Regard a mouse.”

Answer 31

Apostrophe

Question 32

“A land laid waste with all its young men slain”

Answer 32

Assonance: the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds

Question 33

Foil

Answer 33

In fiction, a character who contrasts with another in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character.

(Ex. God & Satan)

Question 34

Frame Story

Answer 34

A story within a story.

Question 35

Hyperbole

Answer 35

A deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration.

(Ex. My shoes are killing me!”)

Question 36

Internal Rhyme

Answer 36

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.

Question 37

In Media Res

Answer 37

Opening a story in a dramatic scene rather than exposition setting up the characters and situation.

Question 38

Lyric Poem

Answer 38

Any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings.

Question 39

Masculine Rhyme

Answer 39

Rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme-words.

(Ex. “keep” and “sleep”)

Question 40

Meter

Answer 40

The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry.

Question 41

Metonymy

Answer 41

A figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely
associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way we commonly speak of the king as the “crown,” an object closely associated with kingship.

Question 42

Mixed Metaphors

Answer 42

The mingling of one metaphor with another immediately following with which the first is
incongruous. Lloyd George is reported to have said, “I smell a rat. I see it floating in the air. I shall nip it in the bud.”

Question 43

Narrative

Answer 43

A collection of events that tells a story, which may be true or not, placed in a particular order and
recounted through either telling or writing.

Question 44

Narrative Poem

Answer 44

A non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex,
long or short. Epics and ballads are examples of narrative poems.

Question 45

Onomatopoeia

Answer 45

The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning. Examples are “buzz,” “hiss,” or “honk.”

Question 46

Oxymoron

Answer 46

A form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination
usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness. Examples include “wise fool,” “sad joy,” and “eloquent silence.”

Question 47

Paraphrase

Answer 47

A restatement of an ideas in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form.
A paraphrase is often an amplification of the original for the purpose of clarity.

Question 48

Personification

Answer 48

A kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics.