Literary Devices Quiz

Vocabulary

• Adage/Proverb: A well-known saying expressing a widely accepted truth.
• Allegory: A story with a hidden meaning, where characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.
• Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds.
• Allusion: Indirect reference to something familiar (literary, historical, biblical, mythological).
• Ambiguity: A situation or expression with multiple possible interpretations.
• Analogy: Comparison to a parallel case to argue for a claim's reasonableness.
• Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.
• Antagonist: Character or force opposing the main character.
• Anthropomorphism: Giving human qualities to non-human things.
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words.
• Asyndeton: Consecutive words/phrases without conjunctions, often emphasizing ideas.
• Balance: Sentence construction structured similarly, typically emphasizing contrast or equal importance.
• Blank Verse: Iambic pentameter without rhyme.
• Cacophony: Jarring, discordant sound.
• Characterization: Method of developing characters, either directly stating traits, or implying traits through actions/dialogue.
• Climax: Turning point or peak of intensity.
• Conflict: A struggle between opposing forces.
• Cliché: Overused idea or expression.
• Concrete Language: Descriptive language focusing on observable details rather than abstract concepts.
• Connotation: Associated ideas or feelings evoked by a word (beyond dictionary meaning).
• Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds.
• Diction: Word choice, essential for producing specific effects.
• Didactic: Fiction or nonfiction intended to teach a lesson.
• Enjambment: Line break in poetry that continues the sense into the next line without pause.
• Euphemism: A less direct, but less offensive way to express something.
• Euphony: Pleasant-sounding language, often with a smooth rhythm.
• Exposition: Background information provided in a story.
• Farce: Comedy relying on ludicrous situations and exaggerated character traits.
• Fiction: A literary work based on imagination.
• Figurative Language: Words or phrases that describe an idea indirectly using figures of speech.
• Flat Character: Character defined by single trait or quality.
• Foil (Character): Character whose traits contrast with another to highlight the contrasted character's strengths or weaknesses.
• Foreshadowing: Hints of future events.
• Genre: Category of literary work e.g., tragedy, comedy.
• Hyperbole: Extravagant exaggeration.
• Idiom: An expression that isn't literally understood.
• Imagery: Vivid sensory details to create an impression.
• Irony: Discrepancy between expectation and reality.
• Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things.
• Mixed Metaphor: Combining unclear comparisons, often illogical.
• Mood: Atmosphere or feeling of a writing piece.
• Motif: Recurring element in a work, often revealing thematic concerns.
• Motif: Recurring element contributing to theme.
• Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning.
• Oxymoron: Contradictory terms used together.
• Parable: Short story meant to teach a moral.
• Paradox: Statement that contradicts itself but may hold truth.
• Parallelism: Similar grammatical structures for emphasis.
• Persona: A character or voice adopted by an author.
• Personification: Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or ideas.
• Plot: Series of events in a narrative.
• Point of View: Perspective from which a story is told.
• Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but).
• Protagonist: Main character in a work.
• Pun: Wordplay emphasizing multiple meanings.
• Repetition: Repeating a word or phrase.
• Round Character: Developed character with various traits.
• Setting: Time and place of a story.
• Simile: Comparison using "like" or "as."
• Situational Irony: Discrepancy between expectation and outcome.
• Symbol: Thing or event representing something else
• Synecdoche: Part representing a whole.
• Syntax: Grammatical structure of a sentence.
• Theme: Central idea explored in a work.
• Tone: Author's attitude toward material
• Understatement: Deliberately downplaying something to create effect.

Poetry Analysis

• TSPFASTT: Method for analyzing poems (title,speaker,paraphrase,figurative language, attitude,shifts,title, theme)