Literary Terms List
1. Allusion – something that is said or written that brings attention to or refers to a particular subject in a way that is not direct
2. Ambiguity – having more than one meaning, so that it is not clear which meaning is intended
3. Annotation – marking up a text to deepen your understanding
4. Antagonist – the person or force opposing the protagonist
5. Archetype – a character who is very familiar to people and is considered a model for other characters
6. Aside – text in a play spoken to the audience or to one character; the other characters onstage do not hear it
7. Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter
8. Canon – all of the books that are recognized as being the most important pieces of literature
9. Character – a person, thing or animal in a story
10. Chronological order – the arrangement of details in time order (the order in which they occurred)
11. Cliché – an idea or phrase that has been used a lot in the past so that it is not effective, not original, or does not have any meaning anymore
12. Climax – the key scene in the story – that tense, exciting, or terrifying moment when our emotional involvement is greatest
13. Comic relief – Comic episode that relieves the tension or seriousness of surrounding sections
14. Complications – the problems the main character must face in the plot
15. Concrete detail – a fact or example used as evidence when writing
16. Connotation – a feeling or an idea that a word makes you think of
17. Denotation –the dictionary definition of a word
18. Descriptive essay – an essay in which the writer describes an event, person, place, etc. with vivid detail
19. Dialogue – conversation between characters
20. Diction – word choice
21. Direct characterization – the writer TELLS what a character is like
22. Dramatic irony – when a reader or audience knows something important that a character in the story or play does not know
23. Dynamic character – a character that changes during the story
24. Emotional appeal – persuading your reader by tapping into his or her emotions
25. Epithet – a descriptive term (a word or phrase) accompanying or occurring in place of a name
26. Ethical appeal – persuading your reader by using ethical or moral arguments
27. Exposition (basic situation) – the beginning part of a plot that gives information about the characters and their problems or conflicts
28. Expository essay – a type of essay that explains something
29. External conflict – a problem between a character and an outside force, such as another character, society or something in nature
30. First person point of view – the “I” vantage point of a narrator
31. Flashback – scene that interrupts the present action of the plot to flash backward and tell what happened at an earlier time as if it were happening now (uses present tense)
32. Flash-forward – scene that interrupts the present action of the plot to shift into the future as if it were happening now (uses present tense)
33. Foil – a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight features of the other character's personality
34. Foreshadowing – the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot
35. Genre – a category of literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
36. Hubris – an excess of pride
37. Iambic pentameter – a rhythm created by five sets of two syllables in the pattern of unstressed followed by stressed
38. Imagery – the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas
39. Indirect characterization – the writer SHOWS what a character is like through his or her words or actions
40. Internal conflict – a problem that takes place within a character’s heart or mind
41. Irony – a contrast between what is stated and what is meant, or between what is expected to happen and what really happens
42. Limited third person point of view – the story is told by focusing on only one character’s thoughts, feelings or emotions
43. Logical appeal – persuading your reader by using logical arguments
44. Meter – the arrangement of sounds in poetry into patterns of strong and weak beats (rhythm)
45. Monologue – a long piece of text in a play spoken by one character to other characters onstage
46. Mood – the emotional quality in a piece of literature
47. Narrative essay – the type of essay that tells a story
48. Narrator – the person telling the story
49. Objective point of view – the narrator tells the story without opinion
50. Omniscient point of view – the narrator is all-knowing; we see different characters’ thoughts, feelings and emotions
51. Pathos – the quality of a text that makes the reader feel pity and sadness
52. Persuasive essay – the type of essay that is meant to sway the reader’s opinion
53. Plot – a series of related events that make up a story or drama
54. Point of view – the angle from which the story is told
55. Prose – written language in its usual form, as opposed to poetry
56. Protagonist – the main character in a story
57. Repetition – using the same word or words multiple times
58. Resolution – final part of the plot – now that the struggles are over, we know what is going to happen to the characters
59. Response to literature/text – a piece of writing in which the writer analyzes or in other ways responds to a certain text
60. Rhetoric – the study of how we use language to get our point across
61. Rhyme – correspondence of sounds between words or in the endings of words, sometimes used at the ends of lines of poetry
62. Satire – a way of talking or writing about something, for example politics or politicians, in which you deliberately make them seem funny so that people will see their faults
63. Setting – the time, place, and circumstance of the story
64. Situational irony – a contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really does happen
65. Soliloquy – a long piece of text in a play spoken by a character who is alone onstage, speaking to himself or herself or to the audience
66. Static character – a character that does not change during the story
67. Structure – organization of a sentence or of a piece of text
68. Symbol – a word or phrase that stands for an idea
69. Syntax – the order of words in a sentence
70. Theme – the central idea about life that is developed in the story; apples to the reader and should be at least one full sentence
71. Thesis – the sentence (or sentences) that tells what the whole piece of writing will be about
72. Third person point of view – the story is told by an outside observer
73. Tone – the manner in which an author writes that reflects his or her (or a character or persona’s) attitude toward the subject (tone of voice)
74. Verbal irony – the writer or speaker says one thing and means something entirely different