Unit 1: Language & Sounds and Figurative Language

Question 1

cacophony

Answer 1

sound effect that uses harsh and displeasing sounds; opposite of euphony

Question 2

conceit

Answer 2

an elaborate and often surprising comparison between two apparently highly dissimilar things; most notable for its ingenuity

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

a reference to something literary, mythological, Biblical, the arts, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize

Question 4

oxymoron

Answer 4

figure of speech that juxtaposes two opposite or apparently contradictory words to present an emphatic and dramatic paradox for rhetorical purpose or effect

Question 5

simile

Answer 5

a figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using words such as like or as

Question 6

diction

Answer 6

a speaker or author’s word choice

Question 7

synesthesia

Answer 7

presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation (“a loud color / a sweet sound”)

Question 8

assonance

Answer 8

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables

Question 9

symbol

Answer 9

something that means more than what it is; stands for or suggests something larger and more complex – often an idea or a range of interrelated ideas, attitudes, and practices

Question 10

synecdoche

Answer 10

a figure of speech (or a trope) in which a part of something is used to represent the whole, or occasionally, the whole is used to represent a part (referring to a car simply as “wheels”)

Question 11

euphony

Answer 11

soft, pleasing sounds; opposite of cacophony

Question 12

consonance

Answer 12

repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words (“made/wood”)

Question 13

imagery

Answer 13

the representation through language of sense experience

Question 14

abstract

Answer 14

ideas or general qualities of things; lacking vivid detail

Question 15

paradox

Answer 15

a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements; upon closer inspection may be seen to contain an underlying truth

Question 16

cliché

Answer 16

expression used so often that it has become hackneyed and lost its original impact

Question 17

figurative language

Answer 17

a type of language implying figures of speech; cannot be taken literally or ONLY literally

Question 18

personification

Answer 18

a figure of speech or trope that bestows human characteristics upon anything nonhuman, from an abstract idea to a physical force to an inanimate object to a living organism

Question 19

alliteration

Answer 19

the repetition of initial sounds in successive or neighboring words

Question 20

apostrophe

Answer 20

a device used wherein a character addresses a dead, absent, or imaginary person, thing, or personified abstraction

Question 21

motif

Answer 21

a unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, character type, subject or narrative detail

Question 22

mood

Answer 22

the general feeling created in the reader at a given point

Question 23

concrete

Answer 23

specific details to particular persons/things; creates a clear image for the reader

Question 24

connotation

Answer 24

the association developed by a word beyond its denotation or literal meaning

Question 25

denotation

Answer 25

the literal meaning of a word

Question 26

analogy

Answer 26

a comparison of two different things which are similar in some way

Question 27

onomatopoeia

Answer 27

the creation or use of words that sound like what they mean or seem to signify meaning through sound effects

Question 28

metonymy

Answer 28

a figure of speech in which one thing is represented by another that is commonly and often physically associated with (“The pen [writing] is mightier than the sword [war/fighting]”)

Question 29

metaphor

Answer 29

a figure of speech that associates two unlike things; the representation of one thing by another