Vocabulary

Question 1

Allusion

Answer 1

A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

Question 2

Anachronism

Answer 2

the act of locating something at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

Question 3

Antagonist

Answer 3

a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

Question 4

Protagonist

Answer 4

Main character in a story (doesn’t have to be good)

Question 5

Archetype

Answer 5

A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response

Question 6

Direct Characterization

Answer 6

The author directly states a character’s traits

Question 7

Indirect Characterization

Answer 7

The character is revealed through their personality, appearance, words, actions, and effect on others

Question 8

Connotation

Answer 8

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Question 9

Denotation

Answer 9

The dictionary definition of a word

Question 10

Convention

Answer 10

A way in which something is usually done, especially within a particular area or activity.

Question 11

Dialogue

Answer 11

Conversation between two or more characters

Question 12

Diction

Answer 12

A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words

Question 13

Euphemism

Answer 13

An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant

Question 14

Ellipsis

Answer 14

three periods (…) indicating the omission of words in a thought or quotation

Question 15

Exposition

Answer 15

Term that refers to the introduction of a story/book when the characters and setting are first described.

Question 16

Metaphor

Answer 16

A comparison without using like or as

Question 17

Metonymy

Answer 17

A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it

Question 18

Personification

Answer 18

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Question 19

Simile

Answer 19

A comparison of two unlike things using like or as

Question 20

Synecdoche

Answer 20

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

Question 21

Flashback

Answer 21

A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events

Question 22

Foreshadowing

Answer 22

A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader.

Question 23

Foil

Answer 23

A character who acts as a contrast to another character

Question 24

Hyperbole

Answer 24

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Question 25

Imagery (identified by five senses: sight, gustatory (taste), olfactory (smell), touch, hearing)

Answer 25

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Question 26

Motif

Answer 26

a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition

Question 27

Nonlinear Narrative

Answer 27

a narrative that goes out of chronological order.

Question 28

Oxymoron

Answer 28

conjoining contradictory terms (as in ‘deafening silence’)

Question 29

Paradox

Answer 29

a statement that seems contradictory but is actually true

Question 30

Dramatic Irony

Answer 30

when a reader is aware of something that a character isn’t

Question 31

Verbal Irony

Answer 31

A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant

Question 32

Situational Irony

Answer 32

An outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected

Question 33

First person point of view

Answer 33

a character in the story is actually telling the story himself/herself

Question 34

Second person point of view

Answer 34

The narrator tells the story using the pronouns “You”, “Your,” and “Yours” to address a reader or listener directly

Question 35

Third person point of view omniscient

Answer 35

all-seeing narrator who knows the thoughts and feelings of most, if not all, of the characters

Question 36

Third person point of view limited

Answer 36

the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character

Question 37

Third person point of view objective

Answer 37

The narrator is not part of the story and does not know any of the characters’ feelings.

Question 38

Rhetorical Question

Answer 38

figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer

Question 39

Romance

Answer 39

a medieval narrative about the adventures of a chivalric hero

Question 40

Satire

Answer 40

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.

Question 41

Setting

Answer 41

where and when the story takes place

Question 42

Speaker Tag

Answer 42

the part of a sentence that identifies who is speaking in a quote

Question 43

Symbol

Answer 43

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Question 44

Synesthesia

Answer 44

describing one kind of sensation in terms of another (“a loud color”, “a sweet sound”); when one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another

Question 45

Syntax

Answer 45

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Question 46

Theme

Answer 46

Central idea/lesson of a work of literature

Question 47

Verisimilitude

Answer 47

the quality of appearing to be true, real, likely, or probable