Allegory
a story or painting that has two levels of meanings: the surface meaning and the symbolic meeting
Ex: Aslan the lion represents Christ or God, the White Witch represents evil, and Edmund represents Judas as the betrayer
Alliteration
a literary device where two or more words in a phrase share the same beginning consonant sound
Ex: She sells seashells by the sea-shore
Allusion
a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or any idea of historical, cultural, or literal significance
Ex: You're acting like such a Scrooge! Alluding to Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this line means that the person is being miserly and sel
Ambiguity
a word or a phrase that does not have one concrete meaning, but rather multiple meanings
Ex: Sarah gave a bath to her dog wearing a pink t-shirt
Analogy
a comparison in which and idea or thing is compared to something very different from it
Ex: Life is like a race
Anecdote
a short story or amusing event that is normally used to invoke laughter and is from personal experience
Ex: You know, when I was a kid, my dog was my best friend. My childhood was better because of him.
Antecedent
a literary device in which a word or pronoun in a sentence refers to an earlier word
Ex: My sister is at the top of her class. In this sentence, the antecedent is 'sister,' which is a feminine noun. The correct pronoun is used here, as 'her' is a feminine
Antithesis
when two opposite ideas are put together to achieve an effect of contrast
Ex: Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing
Aphorism
a statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner
Ex: Actions speak louder than words
Apostrophe
a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person
Ex: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky
Ballad
a poem that is arranged in quatrains and has a rhyme scheme of ABAB
Blank verse
a type of poetry that has meter but does not have rhyme
Cacophony
the use of words with sharp and harsh sounds
Ex: He is a rotten, dirty, terrible, trudging, stupid dude!
Caesura
a pause in a line of poetry that is formed by the rhymes of natural speech
Ex: "Oh, say can you see || by the dawn's early light...
Chiasmus
a rhetorical device where two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structure
Ex: You must eat to live, not live to eat.
Circumlocution
a rhetorical device where the speaker tries to avoid directly expressing an idea, view, or thing
Ex: In many religious traditions, practitioners use other names to refer to God. So they come up with circumlocutions such as "Our Father who art in Heaven.
Colloquial
the use of informal words, or slang in writing
Conceit
the use of an extended metaphor to compare two dissimilar things
Ex: Life is a bowl of cherries
Connotation
the implied meaning of a word
Consonance
the repetition of sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase
Ex: Mike likes his new bike
Couplet
a literary device where there are two successive rhyming lines in a verse with the same meter, which forms one complete thought
Ex:
It's hard to see the butterfly
Because he flies across the sky
Denotation
the literal or dictionary definition of a word
Diction
a style of speaking or writing determined by a writer's choice of words
Didactic
a novel, play, poem, or writing that has the intent of teaching the reader something
Ex: Children's book, religious texts
Elegy
a poem or song written in couplets typically mourning the death of an individual
Elision
the removal of an unstressed syllable, consonant, or letter from a word or phrase
Ex: Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing o'er the plains
Ellipsis
a literary device used to omit parts of a sentence or event in order to force the reader to fill the gap
Ex: a person might say, "I went to the mall on Monday, and she on Sunday.
End stopped
a poetic device where a stop comes at the end of a sentence, clause, or phrase
Enjambment
an incomplete syntax at the end of a line to the next line
Epic
a long narrative poem, usually related to heroic deeds of a person of courage or bravery
Epigram
a rhetorical device that is a brief and interesting satirical statement, usually used in poetry
Euphemism
a polite or indirect replacement for harsh or impolite words
Euphony
words that have a noteworthy melody to the way they sound
Ex: The words mists, mellow, close, sun, bless, vines
Extended metaphor
a comparison between two unlike things that extended for multiple sentences or lines
Foreshadow
a literary device in which a writer gives a hint to what is going to occur later on in the writing
Free verse
poetry without any limitations of meter or rhyme, these poems usually do not rhyme
Grotesque
the focus on the human body and all ways it can be distorted or exaggerated
Hyperbole
the use of extreme exaggeration to show emphasis
Idyll
a simple yet descriptive piece of work that refers to a rustic life or a mood of peace
Iamb
a foot containing unaccented and short syllables followed by a long and accented syllable
Iambic pentameter
an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
Imagery
language that appeals to the five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) and invokes an image in the readers mind
Invective
speech or writing that attacks, insults, or denounces a person, topic, or institution
Dramatic irony
when an audience watching a play understands what is occurring while the characters are unaware
Situational irony
when actions or events have the opposite results from what is expected to happen
Verbal irony
when the speaker says one thing but means another, such as sarcasm
In medias res
the practice of beginning a novel or epic by putting the reader in a crucial situation that is related to a chain of events
Juxtaposition
when two or more ideas, places, or characters and their actions are placed side by side; this is often done to develop comparisons or contrasts
Litotes
an understatement using two negatives or a positive statement and negating its opposite expressions
Ex: "not bad
Lyric
a poem where the writer expresses his or her emotions through a character in the first person
Metaphor
a comparison of two unrelated things
Metonymy
a scary word for a not so scary concept, such as saying "the crown" instead of "the king
Motif
an image, sound, action, or other figure with symbolic significance and contributes towards the development of the theme
Ex: A repeated reference or visual of shattered glass (something in life is about to break)
Non-sequitur
a literary device where something said has no relation to what was said before it, therefore, creating a comedic effect
Octave
a verse form that contains eight lines which appear in iambic pentameter
Ode
a poem like a sonnet or an elegy; it is not lengthy and lyrical in nature
Onomatopoeia
a word that imitates the sound of a thing, such as the word "meow
Opsis
the word for a spectacle in a theatre
Oxymoron
when two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect, such as living death
Parody
an imitation of a particular artist, writer, or genre and exaggerating it to produce a comical effect
Parallelism
when parts of a sentence are grammatically the same or similar in construction
Paradox
a statement which may seem self-contradictory or silly but has some truth
Pathetic fallacy
when an author gives human emotions or traits to nature or inanimate objects
Pastoral
a literary work dealing with rural life in an artificial manner
Penultimate
something that is second to last or right before the last part of a series
Pentameter
a device in a line that can be defined as a line in a verse that has five strong metrical feet or beats
Personification
when something that is not human is given human characteristics
Point of view
the mode of narration that an author employs to let readers hear and see what takes place in a story, poem, or essay
Pun
a play on words which creates a humorous effect by using a word with two different meanings or substituting unrelated yet similar sounding words
Quatrain
a stanza in a poem with exactly four lines
Rhetoric
the technique of using language effectively in spoken or written form with the intent of persuasion
Rhetorical question
a question someone asks but does not expect an answer; this is normally used for persuasion when an answer is very obvious
Rhyme scheme
a poem's pattern of lines that rhyme with other lines in a poem or stanza
Sarcasm
a literary device used to mock with ironic remarks a person or part of society
Sardonic
acting in a sarcastic or mocking way with the intent to hurt someone
Satire
a genre of literature or performing art which ridicules something
Sestet
the first part of a poem that has six lines
Simile
a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things using the words "like" or "as
Soliloquy
a literary device used in writing to reveal the inner thoughts of a character
Sonnet
a poem with fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter, with each line having ten syllables
Symbol
a device with several layers of meaning which are often at first concealed
Synecdoche
a literary device where a part represents a whole, or when a whole represents a part
Ex: The word "sails" is often used to refer to a whole ship
Syntax
the way in which words and sentences are placed together
Tetrameter
a line of four metrical feet
Tone
the attitude of the writer towards a subject or audience, where word choice is often used to convey such tone
Trope
the use of figurative language, through words, images, or phrases for an effect such as figure of speech
Villanelle
a dance song coupled with pastoral themes; it requires a poem to have nineteen lines and a fixed form
Wit
used to make the reader laugh, typically having a mocking quality
Zeugma
a device for using one word to modify two other words
Ex: "She broke his car and his heart.
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds