Vocabulary Flashcards
Allegory
Definition: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Language origins: Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Alliteration
Definition: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Language Origins: Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Allusion
Definition: an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Language Origins: French
Part of Speech: noun
Ambiguity
Definition: the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.
Language Origins: Old French
Part of Speech: noun
Analogy
Definition: a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Language Origins: French
Part of Speech: noun
Antithesis
Definition: a figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other, such as “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins”.
Language Origins: Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Colloquial
Definition: (of language) used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary.
Language Origins: Latin
Part of Speech: adjective
Connotation
Definition: an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
Language Origins: Medieval Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Denotation
Definition: the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.
Language Origins: 1530s, “indication, act of indicating by a name or sign,” from Late Latin denotationem (nominative denotatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin denotare “denote, mark out,” from de- “completely” (see de-) + notare “to mark, note, make a note” (see note (v.)). Sense of “meaning or signification of a term” is from 1610s. As a term in logic, “that which a word denotes, names, or marks” (contrasted with connotation) from 1843. Related: Denotational.
Part of Speech: noun
Diction
Definition: the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
Language Origins: Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Extended metaphor
Definition: a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem.
Language Origins: late 15th century: from French, via Latin from Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Figurative language
Definition: a language that’s intended to create an image, association, or other effect in the mind of the listener or reader that goes beyond the literal meaning or expected use of the words involved.
Language Origins: Middle English figuratif “representing symbolically,” from Medieval Latin figūrātīvus, from Latin figūrātus, past participle of figūrāre “to shape, make a likeness of, represent” + -īvus -IVE — more at FIGURE entry 2
Part of Speech: noun
Figure of speech*
Definition: a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.
Language Origins: Philosophical and scientific senses are from use of Latin figura to translate Greek skhema. Meaning “lines forming a shape” is from mid-14c. From mid-14c. as “human body as represented by art;” late 15c. as “a body, the human form as a whole.” The rhetorical use of figure, “peculiar use of words giving meaning different from usual,” dates to late 14c.; hence figure of speech (by 1704). Figure-skating is from 1835, so called for the circular patterns skaters formerly made on the ice to demonstrate control; they were dropped from international competition in 1990, but the name remains. Figure eight as a shape was originally figure of eight (c. 1600). From late 14c. as “a cut or diagram inserted in text.”
Part of Speech: noun
Genre
Definition: a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
Language Origins: early 19th century French
Part of Speech: noun
Imagery
Definition: visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.
Language Origins: Old French
Part of Speech: noun
Inference/infer
Definition: a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
Language Origins: late 16th century Medieval Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Irony/ironical
Verbal: when a speaker speaks something contradictory to what he intends to say.
Situational: 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: occurs when the audience knows something that the characters don’t.
Language Origins: early 16th century Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Personification
Definition: the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Language Origins: 1727 “to attribute personal form to inanimate objects or abstractions” (especially as an artistic or literary technique), from person + -fy or from French personnifier (17c.), from personne. Meaning “to represent, embody” attested from 1806. Related: Personified; personifying.
Part of Speech: noun
Point of View
Definition: (in fictional writing) the narrator’s position in relation to a story being told.
Language Origins: “position from which a thing is or is supposed to be viewed,” 1727, translating French point de vue, a loan-translation of Latin punctum visus. Figurative use “state of mind, predisposition (conscious or not)” is from 1760. The Latin phrase was translated into German as Gesichtspunkt.
Part of Speech: noun
Prose
Definition: the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.
Language Origins: Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Repetition
Definition: the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
Language Origins: late middle English from Old French
Part of Speech: noun
Rhetoric
Definition: the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.
Langauge origins: Middle English from Old French, via Latin from Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Satire
Definition: 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.
Language Origins: early 16th century from French or from Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Semantics
Definition: the study and analysis of how language is used figuratively and literally to produce meaning.
Language Origins: 1829 from Greek, 1847 from German, 1893 from French
Part of Speech: noun
Symbolism
Definition: an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind.
Language Origins: late 19th century France and Belgium
Part of Speech: noun
Theme
Definition: the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.
Language Origins: Middle English via Old French from Latin, from Greek,
Part of Speech: noun
Thesis
Definition: a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.
Language Origins: late Middle English via late Latin from Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Tone
Definition: the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.
Language Origins: Middle English from Old French, from Latin, from Greek
Part of Speech: noun
Transition
Definition: a passage in a piece of writing that smoothly connects two topics or sections to each other.
Language Origins: mid 16th century from French or Latin
Part of Speech: noun
Voice
Definition: expresses the narrator or author’s emotions, attitude, tone and point of view through artful, well thought out use of word choice and diction
Language origins: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin
Part of Speech: noun
