Action Verb
This is the part of speech that shows something is being done.
Adjective
This is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun.
Adjective Clause
This is a group of related words with a subject and predicate that acts to modify a noun or pronoun.
Adverb
This is a word that modifies a verb, an adverb or an adjective.
Adverb Clause
This is a group of related words with a subject and predicate that acts to modify a verb, adjective, or adverb.
Affix
This is a syllable or word element that can only occur in front of a root or stem, or at the end of a root or stem.
Ambiguity
This is the state of having more than one possible meaning which often leads to misunderstanding because the meaning is not clear.
Analogy
This is a comparison based on a similarity between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
Antecedent
This is the noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers.
Antonym
This is a word or phrase that means the opposite of another word or phrase.
Apostrophe
This is used to show the possessive form of a noun and is used to show that a letter or letters have been left out of a contraction.
Appositive
This is a word or phrase that identifies or explains the noun that it follows.
Base Word
This is a word to which affixes may be added to create related words, as 'group' in 'regroup' or 'grouping'.
Capitalization
This is the use of letters to indicate proper nouns, or it is used at the beginning of a sentence.
Clarify
Reading and writing both involve the mental processing of information which must be clarified and used in ways to make this information understandable.
Clause
This is a group of words that has a subject and a predicate. It can be dependent or independent.
Cognate
These are words that have a common origin.
Collective Noun
This refers to a group of people or things but usually takes a singular verb form. For example: The team is on its way to victory.
Colon
This is a punctuation mark used before a list of items or details, before a statement that summarizes the original statement, before a long, formal quotation or statement, or in a business letter after the salutation.
Comma
This is a punctuation mark that may be used to indicate a pause, connection, separation, list or for clarity or to show importance.
Comma Splice
This is when two or more independent clauses are joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction.
Common Adjective
This does not need to be capitalized and is the term given for the general description of a noun.
Comparative Adjective
This is used to state that one noun has more of something than the second noun. It is a modifier that relates one word to another.
Complex Sentence
This consists of one independent clause with one or more subordinate clauses.
Compound Sentence
This consists of two or more independent clauses with no subordinate clauses.
Compound-Complex Sentence
This consists of at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause.
Concise Wording
This is the author's use of brevity when writing.
Conjunction
This is a part of speech that links two words, clauses, or phrases.
Connotation
This is the emotional feelings and associations that go beyond the dictionary definition of a word.
Context
This is the framework of meaning which surrounds a specific word, sentence, idea, or passage.
Context Analysis
This is a method of breaking down the meaning of a word (or phrase) by working with the text or passage in which the word is used.
Context Clues
These are in the text surrounding a word and give hints for the meaning of the word.
Conventions
In writing, this is the trait to measure standard writing and the editing processes of spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization, and paraphrasing.
Coordinating Conjunction
This is a word used to connect grammatically equal elements. These include and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet.
Dangling Modifiers
These are words or phrases that do not modify ANY word in the sentence.
Decode
This is when we analyze a spoken or written word to discover its pronunciation or meaning.
Denotation
This is the dictionary definition of a word.
Derivation
This is the process by which a word is created from other words.
Dictionary
This is a reference book containing an alphabetical list of words, with information given for each word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.
Direct Object
This is a noun, pronoun or word group that receives the action of verbs.
Direct Quotation
This is the exact repetition of someone's written or spoken words.
Edit
This is to correct and/or revise a piece of writing.
Electronic Resource
This is something that can be accessed online or by computer and is used for support or to help.
Ellipsis Mark
This, three spaced periods, is used to indicate that a word or words have been deleted from a direct quote.
End Punctuation
These are marks used to indicate the end of a sentence.
Etymology
This is the origin and history of a word which shows the language or languages from which it is borrowed.
Exclamation Point
This is used after a word or words that have special emphasis or feeling.
Figurative Language
This goes beyond the literal meanings of words to create special effects or feelings.
Foreign Words
These used in English are borrowed directly from other languages.
Format
This is the general plan of organization of a written work.
General Dictionary
This is a common reference book of words in alphabetical order including information about their meanings, pronunciation, and forms.
Glossary
This is a list found in the back of a book that gives definitions of unusual or hard words found in the text.
Grammar
This is the structure of language and the rules that go with it.
Homonym
This is a word that has multiple meanings and is spelled in the same way for both meanings.
Homophones
These are words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings.
Idiom
This is a phrase in common use that can not be understood by literal or ordinary meanings.
Implied Meaning
This is a suggested, but not stated, definition.
Indefinite Pronoun
This takes the place of a noun and refers to nonspecific persons or things.
Indirect Object
This is a word or group of words that acts as a noun and tells to whom or what something is done.
Infer
This is to get a conclusion from the facts or context; to figure out what is being implied by reading between the lines.
Inference
This is reading between the lines. It is taking something that you read and putting it together with something that you already know to make sense of what you read.
Interjection
This is a word, either by itself or within the sentence, that exclaims or commands attention.
Irregular Noun
This is a type of noun that forms its plural by a means other than adding 's' or 'es'.
Irregular Verb
These are verbs that do follow standard conjugation rules.
Linking Verb
This is a word that connects the subject to either a noun or adjective. They are either a form of "be" or other specific words.
Literal Meaning
This is the ordinary, usual, or exact meaning of words, phrases, or passages. No figurative language or interpretation is involved.
Literal Understanding
This is the act of taking or perceiving something according to the usual, ordinary or surface meaning.
Manuscript
This is any unpublished writing that is handwritten or word processed.
Misplaced Modifier
This a word or word group that sounds unclear because it seems to describe the wrong word.
Modifier
These are words that qualify the meaning of another word.
Modifiers
These are words or phrases that make the intended meaning more specific.
Multiple-meaning Words
These are words that have more than one definition. The meaning of the word is determined by how it is used in a sentence.
Nominative Case
This contains pronouns which are used as subjects or subject complements in sentences.
Nonessential Clause
This is a clause that modifies another word or group of words but does not include essential identifying information.
Nonessential Phrase
This is a phrase that modifies another word or group of words but does not include essential identifying information.
Noun
This is a word that names a person, place, thing, quality or idea.
Object
This is never the subject, but always a noun, in a sentence it can be either direct or indirect.
Object Complement
This is an adjective or noun that follows and modifies a direct object.
Objective Case
This contains pronouns which are used as objects in sentences.
Participle
This is a verb form used as an adjective.
Parts Of Speech
These are the different classes into which words are commonly grouped according to their form, function or meaning.
Parts Of Speech
These are the different classes into which words are commonly grouped according to their form, function or meaning.
Period
This is an end punctuation mark that indicates the end of a sentence.
Personal Pronoun
These are words used as substitutes for proper or common words.
Phrase
This is a group of words used as a single part of speech without a subject and verb.
Possessive Pronoun
This is a word that takes the place of noun and shows ownership.
Precise Vocabulary
This is a writing skill which assures that students choose words that exactly and accurately describe or reflect the writer's meaning.
Prefix
This can be added to the beginning of a word to change the word's meaning.
Preposition
This is a word that specifies the place, direction, or time of a noun in relation to another word.
Prepositional Phrase
This is a set of words that begins with a word telling the position of a person or thing in relation to a noun or pronoun.
Presentation
This is a prepared performance, report, or demonstration for an audience.
Pronoun
This is a word that takes the place of a noun.
Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
A substitute word must always match the word it is substituting for in person, number and gender.
Pronoun Case
This is the form of a pronoun which changes to show the relationship to other words in the sentence.
Pronunciation
This is the way a word or language sounds when spoken.
Proofread
This is the process of making marks on a written document to correct errors.
Publish
This is to issue written work publicly.
Punctuation
This is the system of standardized marks in written language to clarify meaning.
Question Mark
This is the end punctuation for an interrogative sentence.
Quotation Marks
These are used to enclose direct quotations and to designate titles of short works (like newspaper and magazine articles, poems, short stories, songs, episodes of television and radio programs, and subdivisions of books or web sites).
Quote
This is to speak or to write a passage from another source. It can also be the exact words that someone else has written or said.
Reflexive Pronoun
These are easy to spot because they always end in either "self" or "selves," these pronouns refer to, or reflect back to, the subject.
Related Words
These are words built on the same root word.
Relative Clause
This is a group of words having a subject and a verb that relates to something in the sentence.
Relative Pronoun
This pronoun relates a noun to another noun in the sentence.
Root Word
This is a word related in origin, as certain words in genetically related languages descended from the same ancestral word. It is also the part of the word after all affixes have been removed.
Run-on Sentence
This results when independent clauses have not been joined correctly.
Semicolon
This is a punctuation mark that is used between clauses of a compound sentence when a conjunction is not used, before conjunctive adverbs that join independent clauses, and in a series when the series already contains commas.
Sentence Fragment
This is a group of words that does not have both a subject and a verb and cannot stand alone. It may be punctuated and capitalized as a sentence, but it does not constitute a complete sentence
Sentence Order
This is the organization of sentences.
Sentence Pattern
This is the word order for a complete thought. It is usually SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT.
Simple Sentence
This is an independent clause with no subordinate clauses.
Source
A person, book, document, website or record that provides information.
Specialized Dictionary
This is a book listing words or other linguistic items in a particular category or subject with specialized information about them.
Stem
This is the part of a word to which we attach an affix (prefix or suffix).
Strategy
This is any kind of mental action used by a student to comprehend and make meaning out of a reading text.
Subject
This is always a person, place, thing, or idea, that the sentence is about.
Subject Verb Agreement
This is a rule that the subject and verb must be the same in number.
Subordinating Conjunction This type of word introduces a subordinate
or dependent, clause and designates its relation to the rest of the sentence. Examples: after, although, as, because, since, so that, unless, until when, where, and why.
Suffix
This can be added to the end of a word to change the word's meaning.
Superlative Adjective
This is used to compare 3 or more nouns. It takes a large idea and gives its essential meaning in a brief grouping of words.
Synonym
This is a word or phrase that has the same or almost the same meaning as another word or phrase.
Syntax
This refers to the ordering of elements in a sentence.
Thesaurus
This is a book of synonyms.
Usage
This is the way words and phrases are utilized correctly in written or spoken language.
Verb
This is a word that denotes action, occurrence or existence.
Verb Form
This relates to the principal parts of words that show action or states of being.
Verb Tense
This indicates the time of the action or state of being.
Vocabulary
All the words in a language; the words used for a specific content or task. Synonym:lexicon.
Word Origin
This tells when and how a word originated and developed into modern English.
Word Recognition
This is the ability to analyze and interpret the graphic symbols for words. This includes understanding as well as pronunciation.