Vocab list Flashcards
Allegory
a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
Alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Allusion
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Ambiguity
the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.
Analogy
a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Antithesis
a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
coloquial
used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.
connotation
an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
denotation
the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests
diction
the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
extended metaphor
refers to a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem
figurative language
language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation.
figure of speech
a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.
genre
a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
inference
a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
verbal irony
a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant
situational irony
irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.
dramatic irony
irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.
personification
the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
point of view
used especially in describing a method of shooting a scene or film that expresses the attitude of the director or writer toward the material or of a character in a scene.
prose
written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.
repetition
the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
Satire
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Semantics
the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.
Symbolism
the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
theme
the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.
Thesis
a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.
tone
the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.
Transition
are words and phrases that provide a connection between ideas, sentences and paragraphs
voice
is the individual writing style of an author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, dialogue, etc., within a given body of text
