Rhetorical Devices and Tone Words

Allegory

A literary work in which characters, objects, or actions represent abstractions

Alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

Amplification

involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what might otherwise be passed over

Analogy

A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way

Anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Antithesis

the direct opposite, a sharp contrast

Aphorism

A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.

Appositive

A word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

Asyndeton

the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

Atmosphere

a surrounding influence or environment

Attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

Bildungsroman

A coming of age story

Blank Verse

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Caesura

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line.

Canon

an established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature

Catachresis

an extravagant, implied metaphor using words in an alien or unusual way

Chiasmus

a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases

Cliche

a worn-out idea or overused expression

Colloquialism

A word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't)

Connotation

All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds

Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word

Diction

A writer's or speaker's choice of words

Didactic

instructive

Double Entendre/Pun

Terms used for words that can reflect a double meaning. In particular, a pun is a word used in a witty way so that its similarity to another word is emphasized.

Dramatic Irony

Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.

Elegy

a sad or mournful poem

End Rhyme

A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line

Episodic Structure

made up of a series of chapters or stories linked together by the same character, place, or theme but held apart by their individual plot, purpose, and subtext.

Epistolary novel

A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters

Epithet

A descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or something

Eponym

a person whose name is, or is thought to be, the source of the name of something

Euphemisms

a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

Euphony

pleasant, harmonious sound

Fable

A brief story that leads to a moral, often using animals as characters

Foreshadowing

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

Grotesque

absurd; distorted

Heroic Couplet

two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Internal Rhyme

A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Meter

instrument for measuring

Metonymy

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

Mock Heroic

An imitation or burlesque of something heroic

Octave

an eight-line stanza

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.

Paradox

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Parallelism

Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other

Personification

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

Point of View

the perspective from which a story is told

Prose

Any writing that is not poetry

Quatrain

A four line stanza

Refrain

A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer

Rhyme Scheme

A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem

Satire

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

Sestet

six line stanza

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as

Situational Irony

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

Slant Rhyme

rhyme in which the vowel sounds are nearly, but not exactly the same (i.e. the words "stress" and "kiss"); sometimes called half-rhyme, near rhyme, or partial rhyme

Soliloquy

A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage

Sonnet

a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.

Symbol

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

Synecdoche

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

Syntax

Sentence structure

Tercet

three line stanza

Theme

Central idea of a work of literature

Thesis

Focus statement of an essay; premise statement upon which the point of view or discussion in the essay is based.

Tone

Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character

Understatement

A statement that says less than what is meant

Verbal Irony

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

Villanelle

A 19 line form using only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern

Volta

The turning point in a sonnet