assonance
repetition of vowel sounds
allusion
referring to a historical event, person, place, mythological creature
apostrophe
someone absent or dead or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply
alliteration
repetition of sounds or letters at the beginning of words
cacophony
harsh sounds
connotation
an idea or feeling that a word evokes in addition to its literal meaning
consonance
repetition of consonant sounds
denotation
literal meaning of a word
euphony
pleasant sounds
figurative language
writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally
hyperbole
uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor
imagery
description that appeals to the senses
irony
a contrast between expectation and reality
metaphor
a direct comparison between two unlike things
onomatopoeia
a word imitates the sound it represents
oxymoron
two opposite words together "bittersweet" is a classic example
paradox
a proposition or statement that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth
paraphrase
to restate in other words
personification
giving human qualities to animate objects
repetition
repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis
rhyme
repetition of sounds at the end of words
rhyme scheme
lots of couplets
simile
a comparison between two unlike things using the word like or as
stanza
a group of lines in a poem
symbol
an object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself
synesthesia
describing one kind of sensation in terms of another
theme
central idea of a work of literature
tone
a writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed trough diction figurative language