Literary Terms (Figurative Language) Flashcards
Short Story Test
Allegory
The representation of one thing (idea, concept) by something else, usually concrete.
Animal farm, using animals to talk about political structures.
Alliteration
The repetition of the first letter or sound of a series of words.
Skibidi slicers with super sigmas
Allusion
A reference to something well known
Biblical tales, Shakespears, political events, etc.
Analogy
A comparison of similar things, often for the purpose of using something familiar to explain something unfamiliar
Using gamer terms to a gamer to explain calculus (idk)
Apostrophe
The direct addressing of something as though it were living and present
like the guy talking to the skull in hamlet
Aside
When actors speak to the audience, usually not being heard by other actors. Usually for comedy, or their own thoughts.
Deadpool
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables
They felt a big shake at the lake as they realized their fates were sealed.
Cacaphony
Grade 8 band
Cliche
Used so much that it’s become old and used
in conclusion…
Connotation
Feelings associated to certain words
Skibidi (cringe), Discipline (my mom), pog (cool)
Consonance
Repetition of the same consonants in words
I used a stick to hack the fickle vines away
ck sound
Denotation
The specific, exact meaning of a word, independent of its emotional associations
The kid was blue (I dunked him in blue paint)
Dissonance
Grade 8 band
Ellipsis
Omission of one or more words, but still presumable understood by the reader. Also used to show pauses, and trailing off sentencings.
Sticking out… for the rizzler
Epithet
Used to to describe a person or thing based on certain characteristics
Alexander THE GREAT, Jesus THE SAVIOR
Figure of speech
Language which departs from the standard construction, order and significance of words in order to convey special meaning or effect
Also includes stuff like similes, metaphors, oxymorons, etc.
When in Rome, do what the Romans do.
Hyperbole
How my brother describes what I did to my parents after I did something wrong.
Iambic Pentameter
Rhythm in poetry. 5x unstressed syllable to stressed syllable
Imagery
try not to think about pink elephants
Irony
A difference that a reader senses between the words that are spoken and what is actually true. There are 3 types:
Dramatic: When audience knows something that character does not
Verbal: Sarcasm
Situational: Difference between appearance and reality, or between what is and what would seem appropriate
Getting hit by an an ambulance
Metaphor
Comparison between two different things, in which one is said to be the other
Trump is a pig
Metonymy
Substitution of one word for another word associated with it. Basically nicknames that we give titles (suits = lawyer, etc.)
Swearing fealty to the crown (the king)
Metre
Rhythm of a poem. Pattern of the accented and unaccented syllables.
Mood
general vibe, yknow?
Onomatopoeia
krachow
Oxymoron
Two contradictory words are combined into a single expression
Beginning of the end, living dead
Paradox
Something that seems selc contradictory or absurd, but still kinda makes sense
Success is rooted in failure, I must be cruel to be kind, This statement is false, etc.
Pathos
The attempt to make readers feel sympathetic
My pet rock was run over by a car this morning smodge
Personification
Giving inanimate objects, animals, or ideas human-like qualities
Poetic License
Ignoring regular english grammar rules to be cool in poetry
I am become death, destroyer of worlds
Pun
Play on words that either identical or similar in sound but sharply different in meaning
Roy
Rhetorical Question
Grammatically a question, but does not require answer.
Are you crazy? Who cares? (my b couldn’t think of any good ones)
Rhyme
Roses are red, Violets are purpley, Poems are hard, Flurpity durpity
Internal Rhyme
Rhymes on the same line
i’ve got flower power
gotta go take a shower (idk)
Rhyme Scheme
Classified in alphabetical order, pattern of rhymes in a stanza or poem
Rhythm
Movement having a regular repetition of beat, accent, stress, rise and fall, like music but worse
Simile
A direct, expressed comparison between two things.
As graceful as a swan, as dull as a rock
Soliloquy
When a character in a play is alone on stage and speaks their thoughts aloud
Speaker
Ms. Bittner
Symbol
An object, person, situation, or action which has a literal meaning in the story or poem, but also suggests other meanings as well.
Literally just swans representing peace, olive branch which also symbolizes peace, and like 3 more.
Synecdoche
A word describing a part of something to signify the whole, or the whole in place of one of it’s parts.
Trump built the walls bordering the US and Mexico (trump didn’t do it, but it still kinda makes sense)
Congress says that they don’t like mexicans (nah it’s just trump)
Tone
General vibe of a writer to a subject.
Undestatement
me saying “I could’ve studied a tiny bit more” after Mr. Ahn’s math test
